The Second Swarm War
by Onimiman
Summary: Post-FOTJ. Three months after the defeat of Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of the Sith in the Liberation of Coruscant, Raynar Thul's continued presence as a Joiner among the nest of Thuruht threatens to break out a new war between the Killiks and the Chiss Ascendancy. In an effort to prevent a renewed conflict, the Jedi will pose as intermediate peacekeepers. But there's more going on.
1. Chapter 1

An entire fleet of Chiss warships dropped out of hyperspace to enter the Reo system, where it ended up facing the most habitable planet orbiting the lone star in the distance. Of course, given that the planet was a mottled dust ball not too dissimilar to a world like Tatooine, one would think that it was as dead and barren as the rest of the planets in the Reo system. Really, the only difference between this and the other worlds was that somehow, in spite of a lack of suitable resources, the Killik hive of the Thuruht still managed to survive here.

A shuttle dropped out of the hangar bay of one of the leading warships and rocketed down for the planet. Several minutes later, the shuttle landed outside the grounds of the Celestial Palace and its boarding ramp folded out to the ground in order to allow the aging Chiss Ambassador Chaf'orm'bintrano, or Formbi for short, to slowly walk down the ramp with his cane supporting him from falling over. A loyal cabal of guards followed him as they left the vessel with a silver protocol droid ending up as the last one out.

Once Formbi had left the vessel with all of his guards and the droid, they all began a slightly faster walk to the Celestial Palace, which was only fifty meters away. At forty meters, however, the ground before the Chiss party opened up, and a giant, twenty-five meter Killik emerged from the resultant hole to tower over the new arrivals, but it made no subsequent move to attack them. The guards quickly whipped out the charrics from their holsters and aimed them at the giant bug, but Formbi them off.

"Wait!" he barked, turning his head in their direction. "Put your charrics away! We don't need to aggravate another conflict!" He didn't blame the guards for their caution; putting aside for the moment how any non-Killik would revel in horror at such a site as this, the fact remained that the Killiks could still pose a substantial threat to the Chiss Ascendancy as they had so many years before. That, and the fact that they still had to adhere to the Non-Aggression Law that Formbi himself found distasteful but still agreed to follow by.

The guards were hesitant, but they complied with Formbi's demand by holstering their weapons as he looked back to the giant Thuruht representative. "I am Ambassador Formbi of the Chiss Ascendancy," he introduced himself. "We are here to see Raynar Thul. Will you allow us to see him?"

The giant Thuruht rumbled, and the droid translated in its feminine voice, "Raynar Thul is dead. There is only ThurThul."

Formbi groaned in annoyance. "Will you allow us to see ThurThul?"

"What business do you have with the nest of the Thuruht?" the droid translated.

"You know very well what business we have with you," Formbi answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "On behalf of the Ascendancy, I must inform you that we have been very patient with the Killiks for the past six months, ever since you reacquired Raynar Thul as part of your hive mind. You must take us to see ThurThul so we will not spark another conflict between our peoples."

The large Thuruht member rumbled before burrowing itself back into the hole from whence it came. Formbi looked to the droid for a translation as to its departing rumble.

"You may see ThurThul," the droid said.

With that, the Chiss party proceeded around the giant hole and continued for the Celestial Palace. Ten minutes later, they were granted entry at the door by two Killik guards. Upon entering the palace, they were met in the foyer by a smaller member of Thuruht who rumbled briefly, then turned and began walking away. Not needing the droid to translate what it wanted from them, Formbi began following suit, and his guards and the droid wordlessly complied with him.

Five minutes later, the Chiss party entered the throne room of Thuruht, where Raynar Thul, the Jedi Knight who once led the Killik Colony as the badly scarred UnuThul barely a decade before, stood before them in the middle of the room in expectation. Formbi noted how relatively well Thul appeared now since the plastic surgeries he received had repaired what had been damaged when he crash-landed on Yoggoy almost two decades ago.

"To what do the Thuruht owe the pleasure of your company, Ambassador Formbi?" ThurThul asked.

"I believe I stated my case quite clearly with your representative outside this palace," Formbi replied in fluent Basic. "You are quite aware that not half a year ago, the Chiss Ascendancy allowed Jedi Knights Raynar Thul, Lowbacca, Tekli, and their accompanying protocol droid C-3PO to come to this nest and ask for its help. Since that time, with the defeat of Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of the Sith rendering Ray-" Formbi abruptly stopped himself to remember who he was talking to. "-ThurThul's further presence here invalid, the leading Phalanxes on Csilla have grown nervous with the very same Jedi who once ruled over the Killiks now regaining control of even one of its nests."

"We have done nothing to violate the agreement between our civilizations," ThurThul responded.

"Yes, you have," Formbi stated frankly. "Again, you have a Jedi in your hive mind once more, and again, it is the very same Jedi that once led the Colony via the nest of Unu. The Ascendancy has brooked this for six months, as I have mentioned, and we believe that it is time for you to relinquish control of the individual known as ThurThul."

"And why would we want to do that?" ThurThul asked.

Formbi sighed in frustration. "Because it is in violation of the agreement that we signed eight years ago," he answered patiently. "And if you do not adhere to that agreement, the Ascendancy will have no choice but to renew war between our civilizations."

"But within those six months, we have not done anything else to violate the agreement," ThurThul argued. "We have not even expanded anywhere near your boundaries, which was what led you to unfairly open conflict against us at Qoribu."

"You know why we opened up conflict against you at Qoribu," Formbi said. "It was because one of your nests, the Gorog, was feeding off of our people. We had no choice but to act against you."

"We assure you, Ambassador Formbi, that we have no new Dark Nest among us," ThurThul argued. "And even if we did, you still have no real reason to go against us here, and truthfully, we find your reason to be fairly flimsy and paranoid."

"We didn't believe you to be a threat when UnuThul first became part of your collective," Formbi countered.

ThurThul looked curiously at Formbi, apparently missing his point. "And?"

Formbi looked back curiously at the reinstated leader of the Killiks. "Must I remind you that this led to the conflict that inflamed the Swarm War, ThurThul?"

"Again, without a Dark Nest, the Chiss Ascendancy has no real reason to quibble over ThurThul's presence here," he replied.

"We are aware that Jedi Master Cilghal has stated that even without the control of individuals such as Lomi Plo, Welk, or even Alema Rar, there could be a new Dark Nest nevertheless," Formbi said. "And they could once again force the overall Killik collective to pose a threat to the Ascendancy anyway."

"Master Cilghal's assertions are incorrect," ThurThul replied. "The Dark Jedi that you have mentioned were previously individuals, as you have brought up, who corrupted the nest that they were brought into; they were powerful Joiners that made the Gorog into the threat that led to the Swarm War. Aside from ThurThul, there are no other Joiners now."

"That doesn't assure me," Formbi said. "And I doubt it would assure the Phalanxes on Csilla either."

"So you would open up war again even though we have done nothing wrong?" ThurThul asked.

"You violated the agreement by reinstating Raynar Thul into your collective again," Formbi said. "We cannot allow that to pass."

"Well, we certainly do not want another war, but we will not give up ThurThul," ThurThul asserted firmly. "Is there no other way we can resolve this peacefully, Ambassador Formbi?"

Formbi was silent for a moment as he thought. "There is one way," Formbi said. "Would you be so willing as to have the Jedi act as an intermediate party in this matter?"

ThurThul was silent for a while. The air was thick with tension, as ThurThul's next words could very well determine whether or not there would be a new war raging between the Killiks and the Chiss.

He eventually answered with, "We believe that is acceptable."


	2. Chapter 2

Following the Jedi Order's exile from Coruscant three months earlier, one of the few havens in the galaxy they had left was within the Hapes Consortium's vibrant Transitory Mists. The academy on Shedu Maad was now, for all intents and purposes, the Order's home base as its continued supplies and needs were funded by one of their former members and current Queen of the Consortium, Tenel Ka Djo. With the Galactic Alliance no longer officially affiliated with the Jedi Order, the Consortium was the only real ally that they had remaining; ironic, given how most of the inhabitants under Tenel Ka's rule had such an anti-Jedi prejudice.

Fortunately, such prejudice was virtually nonexistent on Shedu Maad, what with the planet being used only for the sole purpose of stationing the Jedi Order's primary academy. That little factoid, though, served only to lengthen the apparent mountain of data for Grand Master Luke Skywalker as he sifted through the reports like clockwork. With more and more Jedi coming and going on various missions and errands throughout the galaxy, reports were inevitable for the Grand Master as he riffled through them as best he could.

During his report-sifting, Luke's commlink beeped. He rested the datapad down on his desktop, took out the comm from his belt, and activated it. "Grand Master Skywalker here."

"Master Skywalker," his secretary's voice called back. She was a high-pitched female Ryn named Murma, who was still an apprentice for the past two years. "There is a representative of the Chiss Ascendancy here to see you. He is not scheduled for an appointment."

"Send him in, Murma," he said before signing off and replacing the commlink back into his belt.

A moment later, the door to Luke's office slid up, and a familiar blue face walked in, stern-faced.

"Ambassador Formbi," Luke said formally. "What a pleasant surprise. Have a seat, please. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Formbi smiled without mirth as he moved to take one of the guest seats in the room, opposite from Luke. "That is the second time within the past week that I have heard that, Master Skywalker," he said before he ultimately sat down. "And that is what I'm here to discuss with you."

"I'm sorry?" Luke asked, confused.

"But first, even though I am not prone to pleasantries, and neither are any of my people for that matter, I do want to express my condolences over the loss of your wife four years ago," Formbi said. "I am sorry to hear that Mara died the way she did."

Luke nodded solemnly. It meant as much to him as all the other times he heard it, which was close to nothing. But, ever the serene and polite Jedi Master that he was, he weathered the reminder of his wife's demise with a look that would put Han's sabacc face to shame.

"Anyway, down to business," Formbi said. "It is under my understanding that, during your private war against the Sith half a year ago, you had sent three of your Jedi Knights to the Reo system to receive information from the Killik nest of the Thuruht regarding the nature of this Abeloth, am I correct?"

"You are, Ambassador," Luke said.

"And it has also come to the understanding of the Chiss Ascendancy that one of those Knights had rejoined the Killik hive, is that also correct?" Formbi asked.

Luke sighed. "Again, yes."

"And finally, was it also not Raynar Thul, the very same Jedi who ruled all of the nests of the Killik species against the Ascendancy barely a decade ago?" Formbi asked, his tone becoming more pressing.

Luke sat back in his chair, his stare unwavering before Formbi. "You have yet to be misled with your information, Ambassador."

"Indeed," Formbi replied. "So, tell me, Master Skywalker, why, in the last six months since your defeat of Abeloth and the Sith, you have not sent any of your own Jedi to retrieve Raynar Thul from the Killiks?"

"As soon as I awoke from the injuries I received in my last battle against Abeloth, which was three months ago, I ordered one of my Masters, Saba Sebatyne, to dispatch a team to retrieve Jedi Thul," Luke stated. "However, we never heard from that team since."

"You didn't bother to look into it?" Formbi asked.

"The Jedi Order was preoccupied with other matters, among them battling the remnants of the Lost Tribe of the Sith remaining scattered throughout the galaxy," Luke said. "The retrieval of Jedi Thul wasn't on the top of our list of priorities, no offense." His tone didn't descend into anything scathing; it remained personable and genuine. "And besides, since we never heard of a new outbreak between the Killiks and the Ascendancy anyway, I actually forgot all about it, to be entirely honest."

"Hmm," Formbi said. "Well, the Ascendancy has been patient with the inactivity on the part of the Jedi Order in extracting Jedi Thul from the Killiks, Master Skywalker, for all these months. The head Phalanxes' collective patience has run thin, and as we speak, for the past seven standard days, a fleet of the Ascendancy's war vessels continue to remain in the Reo system waiting for my return. They expect for me to reappear within the next week with a Jedi intermediary to quell any new conflict between my people and the Killiks. So, Master Jedi, do you think you can spare anyone in the Order to act as a negotiator in this dispute, so I wouldn't have completely wasted what precious time I have left in my old age with two one-week flights?"

Luke leaned forward in his seat. "I'm sure I can spare someone, Ambassador."

.

Within the bowels of Shedu Maad's Jedi Temple, Han Solo fired upon his granddaughter Allana with low-powered stunbolts from his classic sidearm blaster as she blocked them and sent them careening away from her and down to the ground of the training room. The resultant scorch marks would be cleaned away by either the Temple's service droids or the Jedi apprentices who were accredited punishment for personal transgressions. Allana's grandmother and Han's wife of almost four decades, Leia Organa Solo, looked on with her arms crossed in judgment over Allana's abilities.

"You're doin' fairly well, kid," Han commented. "You'da smoked any o' the remotes that your grandma or Aunt Jaina had to go through in their heyday."

"Really?" Allana replied, her focus and skill against Han's well-aimed and well-blocked shots not diminishing an iota. "You think you're a better shot than any of those remote, Grandpa?"

"What do you think the answer is?" Han returned, not slouching on his shots either.

Leia smiled in amusement at the banter between her husband and granddaughter. But when she turned her head to find Luke walk into the training room with Ambassador Chaf'orm'bintrano from the Chiss Ascendancy, her face became stoic. She walked over to her brother and the Chiss.

Han broke up his string of shots to look over to his wife heading for Luke and Formbi. Allana looked, too, which allowed for her grandfather to aim a well-placed shot right in her weapon arm.

"Aah!" Allana yelped, turning back to her grandfather with a shocked and angered expression.

He smirked. "When are you ever _not_ going to fall for that?"

"Training session's done then?" Allana asked, her expression of anger only slightly fading.

"For now," Han answered as he holstered his blaster and went to join his wife.

Allana deactivated her lightsaber, hooked it to her belt, and followed her grandfather.

"Leia, I'm sure you remember Ambassador Formbi from the Chiss Ascendancy," Luke said as his sister and the Chiss shook hands.

"Of course," Leia said before she stopped shaking hands with him. "The last time we met, it was over a comm channel eight years ago after the Swarm War ended. How have you been doing since that time, Ambassador?"

"Fairly well, all things considered," Formbi replied in a personable tone as Han and Allana finally joined them. "Speaking of the Swarm War though, Jedi Solo, would you mind aiding the Chiss Ascendancy to resolve a dispute."

Leia raised an eyebrow. "This is about the Killiks, isn't it?"

"It is," Formbi confirmed with a nod.

Leia sighed. "What do you need me to do, Ambassador?"


	3. Chapter 3

The YT-2400 going by the name _Faux Harla_ dropped out of hyperspace and into the Maad system. It began its sublight travel through the icy corridors of the system to reach the planet that served as the Jedi Order's home base.

In the cockpit of the _Harla_, where Jaina Solo Fel and her husband Jag sat in the pilot and copilot seats respectively, Jaina's commlink beeped at her belt. She unhooked it and activated it. "Master Fel here."

"Jaina, good," Luke's voice came on the other end of the line. "Did you bring this month's worth of foodstuffs for the academy?"

"Of course we did, Uncle Luke," Jaina answered, confused as to why her uncle would personally call her up to check on whether or not she and Jag brought the food that the Order needed.

"Excellent," Luke commented curtly. "After you bring the food down, I have another assignment for you. I'll brief you after the supplies are offloaded from the _Faux Harla_."

Jaina masked her annoyance over the assignments that came back-to-back these days. "On our way. Master Fel out." She signed off and replaced the commlink to her belt.

.

After the foodstuffs were offloaded from the _Harla_, Jaina and Jag were met in the academy's hangar bay by Luke, Han, Leia, Allana, and a Chiss who Jag instantly recognized.

"Ambassador Chaf'orm'bintrano," Jag greeted formally in Basic for the sake of the others around him and Formbi. He promptly shook the Chiss's hand. "It's good to finally meet you."

"I can honestly say I reciprocate the feeling, Jagged," Formbi replied, finally pulling away from the handshake. "In spite of the dishonor that you brought upon your family, I have heard quite a few good things about your tenure as Head of State of the Imperial Remnant." His tone was matter-of-fact.

"Well, thank you," Jag replied with a nod.

"So what's this about, Master Skywalker?" Jaina asked her uncle.

Luke managed to briefly explain what Formbi informed him of the Chiss's current problems with the Killiks in the Reo system before stating, "The team that we sent to retrieve Raynar three months ago never reported in since, nor did they return at all. While your mother will act as negotiator between the Ascendancy and the nest of Thuruht, I need you, Jaina, to go with Jag and find out where that team disappeared to. You'll start by retracing their hyperspace jumps from when they first left the Coruscant system to accomplish their mission."

"How could we do that?" Jaina asked. "It's been three months since they've been dispatched. I doubt Jag and I could retrace their steps after so long a time gap. And besides, last I heard, the Galactic Alliance still banned the Order from Coruscant."

"Infiltrate Coruscant," Luke said outright. "From there, hack into their databanks to determine where the Jedi team left the system."

Formbi raised an eyebrow at this. "You know, while my culture maybe vastly different from that of the Galactic Alliance, isn't hacking into the Alliance's databanks without their permission illegal?"

"Not when you're still unofficially friends with the Alliance's current Chief of State," Luke replied before turning back to the Fels.

"Wynn Dorvan is allowing you to do this?" Formbi inquired.

Luke nodded. "He's still on good terms with the Order, and his authority will be what'll allow Jaina and Jag to sneak onto Coruscant no problem."

"But you haven't contacted him yet," Formbi pointed out.

"I will soon enough, and I know, without a doubt, that he'll agree after I explain the predicament," Luke said. "Trust me, when it comes to the possibility that the Killiks may come back into power, Wynn won't refuse Jaina or Jag." He turned back to the aforementioned couple. "Hacking into the databanks won't be difficult either; I already called in Talon Karrde to have you two meet up with Zakarisz Ghent in the Western District of Coruscant after you've infiltrated the planet. So don't keep him waiting; you're dismissed."

Jaina and Jag nodded as they turned back to the _Faux Harla_ and reentered their vessel to take back off into the skies while the others went their separate ways; Formbi began walking back to his shuttle where his guards waited, Luke began returning to the Jedi Temple proper to return to his duties, and the Solos were heading for the _Millennium Falcon_.

"Ready to meet the bugs again, Han?" Leia teased as she, her husband, and Allana walked to the _Falcon_.

"Ecstatic," Han replied sarcastically. "How 'bout you, Allana? You ready to learn more about negotiation from debates with a civilization of insects?"

"Oh, I'm so excited," Allana said, mirroring her grandfather's sarcasm.

Soon, after everyone boarded their vessels, they took off, heading out of the hangar bay and into the ice-filled space of the Maad system above.

.

On the world of Barga, Ben Skywalker, inconspicuous with his civilian clothes, T-visor shades, blue-dyed hair, and cosmetics that disguised his true face, sat in a table with an umbrella posted on the tabletop to protect his form from the world's hot parent star. He scrutinized the scene before him as he sipped on his vanilla smoothie, looking out among the various different people who were enjoying themselves and having a good time as they either swam or played games on the sandy land.

Sometimes, Ben had to remind himself that he wasn't here on vacation; the Jedi Order was too busy for any one of their members to be on a world like Barga and having fun like most other people at this time. No, he was here to track down at least one surviving member of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, and he knew exactly who she was.

Vestara Khai.

He watched as Vestara played some volleyball off in the distance playing volleyball with several people, as if she wasn't a Sith who, mere months earlier, nearly killed Allana and betrayed him and the Order for the last time. She seemed pretty convincing as a mere teenage girl having the time of her life in the setting.

Somehow, his dad trusted him to go after her and take her in, dead or alive, back into the Jedi Order's custody on Shedu Maad. After all the times that Ben fell for her, and had even ended up in a relationship with her in spite of her treachery and lies, it was a wonder why Luke didn't even hesitate to to send Ben after Vestara. Since that time, Ben thought that because he swore off trusting Vestara ever again, Luke, in turn, trusted him to do the right thing in apprehending the Sith girl by any means necessary; just short of using the dark side, of course.

It was also quite a wonder how Vestara didn't even seem to notice or recognize him through the Force, especially after all the time they'd been together and the intimacy they developed during the hunt for Abeloth. Sure, Ben still kept that useful skill that his hated late cousin, Jacen Solo, a.k.a. Darth Caedus, taught him just before he killed his mom; teaching Ben how to conceal him in the Force even from the people closest to him was one of the few good things that Jacen ever did for him as a Sith.

After several minutes, the game that Vestara was playing had finished, and she decided to leave the beach in a casual manner. Ben took his last sip from the smoothie, threw the empty cup in the garbage bin nearby, and got up from his seat to follow Vestara.


	4. Chapter 4

Ben didn't follow Vestara very far before she approached one of the hostels nearby the beach. She unlocked a door leading into one of the rooms with the keycard she kept within the confines of her bikini top (Ben raised an eyebrow at this) and she entered, closing and locking the door behind her.

Ben stopped, wondering what to do next in order to get at Vestara. Then he suddenly noticed a midsized waiter droid, who was serving drinks to people resting throughout the beach, approach the Sith girl's room with a hovercart of food. Apparently, Vestara had ordered some room service; how convenient, Ben thought, for it gave him an idea.

He approached the droid, intercepting it as it was halfway to Vestara's room. The droid stopped and extended the arm that was carrying at least three plastic cups of cool beverages. "Drink, sir?"

"No thanks, I've had enough," Ben waved off. "But listen, I'm a Jedi Knight, and I'm here on a mission to apprehend a Sith. And I saw that you were approaching the room where this Sith is. Can I ensure your cooperation in this operation..." He trailed off as he looked at the droid's ID on the side of its head. "5U-M4N?"

"I would be delighted to aid in your mission, sir Jedi, if you offer me proof that you are in fact who you say you are," 5U-M4N replied.

Ben sighed, pulling out the hilt of his lightsaber hidden within his shirt. "This is my lightsaber," he said. "That good enough for you?"

"I'm afraid not," 5U-M4N answered. "Anyone lucky enough can take a lightsaber from a dead Jedi, from what I've heard. And even if that lightsaber was yours, you could, in fact, be a Sith, that blade could be red, for all I know, and I could really be helping a Sith kill a Jedi."

"Well, what would you like me to do?" Ben asked, frustrated at the droid. "I can't use the Force out in public, and neither can I activate my lightsaber without blowing my cover."

"Well, I could still be willing to help out a potential Sith or regular criminal," 5U-M4N said, "if they had the credits to wipe out my morality programming for a little while."

Ben made a wry face. _Whatever happened to the days when droids would just cooperate without question? _he wondered privately. Then he remembered about the slave uprising across the galaxy months ago which allowed even droids to live free. It seems as if 5U-M4N is one of those free droids.

But regardless, Ben took out some credits from one of his shorts pockets and dropped them on top of the tray of drinks that 5U-M4N was still carrying. "Will that much do?" Ben asked.

5U-M4N briefly looked at the amount of money that Ben gave him before turning back to the disguised Jedi. "It'll do," the droid answered. "So what do you want me to do?"

A few minutes later, after Ben was done talking to 5U-M4N and had walked away, the droid pulled up to Vestara's room, released the cart to hover over the ground, and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Vestara's voice called from the other end.

"Room service," 5U-M4N answered.

Five seconds later, the door was open and 5U-M4N followed up with, "Here's your food, ma'am."

Then, all of a sudden, Ben flew in from above the droid's side, having been hidden behind the corner of the doorway, and the young Jedi tackled Vestara down to the floor inside. Covering for the Jedi, 5U-M4N pushed the hovercart in and closed and locked the door behind him while Ben held Vestara in place on the floor by her wrists.

"Ben," she said with a seductive smile after the shock of being attacked wore off. "Surprised you wanted to see me so bad. You couldn't allow me to freshen up first?"

"Cut the crap, Vestara," Ben said curtly. "Now I'm giving you a choice here: we can either do this the easy way or the hard way."

"Why do I have the feeling I'm gonna like the hard way better?" Vestara asked, her voice flowing with flirtation.

Ben rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I'm not playin' around here, Ves. I could kill you right now, and not even my dad would question it."

Vestara's playful attitude faded away from her expression, resolving into something resembling a hurt feeling of betrayal.

But Ben didn't buy it; at least, he knew that Vestara wasn't faking it, that she really was emotionally hurt by what he just said to her, but he wasn't going to let it affect his judgment. He saw that look too many times from her from all those months they've been hunting Abeloth with Luke.

"Don't pull that on me," he said. "So, again, I'm asking you: Will you come clean, or do we have to make this difficult?"

Before Vestara could answer, Ben's danger sense tingled. He quickly looked away from the Sith girl, but it was too late for him to react otherwise; 5U-M4N had fired a stunbolt into his back that knocked him unconscious, collapsing his body on top of Vestara.

The Sith girl briefly reveled over the feeling of having Ben on her form, closing her eyes to enjoy this moment, before she pushed him off of her and onto the floor next to her. She stood up and asked the droid, "Was it really necessary to take the money from him? You couldn't just pretend to be a regular, mindless droid?" She saw the exchange of Ben's money and 5U-M4N's false cooperation through the peephole of her room's door.

5U-M4N imitated a shrug with his body. "The money you gave me was good enough to secure my compliance with your plans, Lady Khai. But I figured I could make a little extra from him; my employers don't pay me all that well anyway."

Vestara shook her head. "Never mind," she said. "Can you help me pack his body in the man-sized suitcase I got for him?"

"Perhaps," 5U-M4N said, deliberately trailing off.

Vestara rolled her eyes. She walked over to the nearby counter, rifled through her purse, and pulled out some chips. "Will these do?" she asked as she handed the droid the credits.

"They'll do," the droid replied as he placed the money, along with the credits he got from Ben on his drink tray, into a compartment on the side of his body.


	5. Chapter 5

The _Faux Harla_ dropped out of hyperspace into the Coruscant system and was soon hailed by the planet's security forces. Jaina activated the comm.

"_Benign Harbinger_," the masculine voice said on the other line, "is this Captain Janine Olos?"

Jaina hit the reply button. "This is the captain."

"Captain Olos, you are cleared for landing within the Western Districts," the voice said after a moment; no doubt he had just commenced a voice verification scan. A single click from the other end signaled the end of the curt and brief conversation.

"_Benign Harbinger_?" Jag asked with a disbelieving expression as Jaina piloted the _Harla_ toward Coruscant. "Janine Olos? How the hell did he not suspect a thing?"

"Wynn's probably got that guy under his sleeve," Jaina said. "It seems the ol' Solo luck is finally turning out to be a blessing, after all." Nothing more was said as the ship began its descent through Coruscant's atmosphere.

"I got a bad feeling about this, you know," Jag said as Jaina flew the vessel through the skies.

Jaina smirked, not looking away from the viewport as she spoke. "Too easy so far, eh?"

"Let's just say I'm not ready to believe that the 'ol' Solo charm' is finally turning out to be a blessing after all," Jag said.

Jaina sighed as the _Harla_'s radar began bleeping, signaling the coordinates, which were programmed into the ship's computers when Jaina and Jag received their mission, of the landing pad rooftop of a nondescript building that they were supposed to land on. Promptly, Jaina began theship's landing down upon the roof of the building. "Somehow, Jag... I think you might be right."

Minutes later, after the engines were shut down, the Fels had disembarked from the _Harla_, and the ship was locked up, the two of them approached the turbolift that would take them inside.

"So this is where we're supposed to meet Ghent?" Jag asked.

"Yep," Jaina reminded him as the turbolift doors opened up to admit them.

"You also know which room we're supposed to meet him?" Jag asked as the doors closed upon them once they were inside, initiating the ride that would take them down to the level that Jaina just pushed the button for.

"You weren't paying attention when we got the mission package, huh?" Jaina asked.

"That's because I knew I could count on you to actually soak up the info with that beautiful mind of yours," he said with a sidelong smirk.

Jaina mimicked his smirk mockingly. "Don't push your luck, Fel," she said in a tone that wasn't so placating. "You can't always rely on your wife to take care of you, even if she is an esteemed and wise and powerful Jedi Master."

"You can also add humble to that list of descriptions," Jag followed up sarcastically.

Jaina scoffed playfully. "Oh, like you're any better in terms of humility, Mr. Ace-Human-Pilot-in-the-Chiss-Ascendancy and former Head of State of the Empire."

"Hey, you gotta gimme credit for that," he said half-seriously.

"You're right," Jaina replied. "Your head would explode from the egotism to your brain if you weren't so humble."

"Exactly," Jag said before the turbolift began to slow down. "Though you have demonstrated quite a bit of humility as Trickster goddess of the Yuuzhan Vong, so I'll give you that."

The doors parted out into a dull apartment hallway, and Jaina and Jag began walking down the hall and toward the door that would lead into Zakarisz Ghent's residence. Upon stepping before the door that Jaina led her husband to, she knocked on it.

"Comp Geek, it's Olos and Lef," Jaina called, using the codenames provided to her and Jag by Talon Karrde. "Open up."

A few seconds later, Zakarisz Ghent opened the door with a rather pleasant smile. "Olos and Lef," he said with a tone just as pleasant. "Please, come on in." He led them inside.

Upon closing the door, everything went wrong for the Fels.

The first thing they saw was the body of Ghent off in one of the corners of his apartment, a lightsaber hole in his chest signifying an impalement.

Jaina's danger sense flared and in just under a second, her lightsaber was in her hand, activated, and blocking the crimson blade of the Sith who was posing as Ghent.

Jag quickly whipped out his blaster and aimed it for the Sith. In an instant, the fake Ghent foiled Jag's attempt at even one shot as he used the Force to throw Jag back against the wall behind him, sending him collapsing to the floor in a heap but not losing his grip on his gun.

But the Sith didn't have anymore time to focus on the downed Jag. He quickly turned back to Jaina, who then pushed off against him and began trading blows on their blades, signifying the beginning of a lightsaber duel. In the opening seconds of the fight, the Sith managed to maneuver himself out of the recovering Jag's aim so that Jaina's back would be to her husband.

Not wanting to break his wife's focus on the duel, Jag pushed himself up to his feet and began moving around her so that he could get a better shot at the Sith. But the latter seemed to know of Jag's presence at the peripheral of his awareness (he had the Force, Jag remembered, so he could do that), so he continued to maneuver his form out of Jag's aim so that his sole worry was on dueling Jaina.

"Jaina, get outta the way!" Jag called. "I can't get a lock on him!"

"And I doubt you'll be able to get a lock on any of my friends either, Jag!" the Sith called in between strikes and blocks against Jaina.

Jag's face furrowed in confusion before he noticed several human male Sith, at least five, appear from around the corners of the apartment, igniting their lightsabers along the way.

Not hesitating for a second, Jag aimed at one of them and fired. But as could be predicted, the shot was redirected back in Jag's direction by the Sith's blade accompanied by his Force-enhanced reflexes. Of course, Jag was no fool, so by then, he already rolled out of the way to his side where he ended up in a crouch. He aimed his gun for another of the Sith and fired; again, the same result, with Jag ending up crouching in another area of the apartment.

He knew damn well that his blaster shots would be useless against the Sith, who parried away his bolts as if they were swatting flies. Really, he was just buying time for himself by distracting them, waiting for his wife to finish off the Ghent imposter and move on with the rest of the Sith.

Jaina, meanwhile, managed to do just that as she feigned a swipe that her opponent instantly fell for, which cost him his weapon arm. His dismembered limb flew off through the apartment, his lightsaber automatically shutting off in the process, as he fell to the floor screaming in pain. The Sword of the Jedi didn't spare him a second glance as she turned to the five other Sith in the apartment, intercepting their travel for her relatively powerless husband. They all stopped and regarded her with obvious fear.

"Let me guess," she said with a predatory smile. "The guy you got to play Ghent; he was your best duelist, wasn't he?"

None of them answered; they simply stood their ground, but Jaina noticed some slight shaking on their part, especially as the Ghent imposter's screams continued to go on.

"That's what I thought," Jaina continued. "Now, I'm only gonna say this once; surrender or die."

As if magically, the resolve of the Sith dissipated all the fear they had, and they uniformly charged against Jaina.

Just a little over a minute later, all five of the Sith were dead, lightsaber scorch marks having marred and dismembered their corpses, and the Sword of the Jedi still stood, leisurely deactivating her weapon and hooking it back onto her belt.

"Now why _can't_ I rely on you to do everything, _especially_ when you're an esteemed and wise and powerful and humble Jedi Master?" Jag retorted.

Jaina regarded her husband, who now stood up completely, with only a quick smirk before turning back and walking back to the Ghent imposter that she let allowed to live in agony. She bent down, grabbed him by the collar of his tunic, and pulled him up so they were face-to-face.

"Shut up, or you won't get any treatment for that cut," she said, and the Sith managed to quiet down to quick breaths, still reeling from the pain. "Now tell me; how did you know about this operation?"


	6. Chapter 6

"Jedi Solo," ThurThul said in a subdued tone as Leia, Han, Allana, C-3PO, Formbi, and his entourage entered the throne room of the Celestial Palace. "Han Solo. Amelia Solo. C-3PO. Welcome to the Celestial Palace. And welcome back, Ambassador Formbi."

Formbi gave a curt nod to acknowledge ThurThul's relative hospitality.

ThurThul looked back to Leia. "Now that you are here, shall we begin negotiations?"

"Of course," Leia answered as she, her entourage, and Formbi and his entourage began to move across the room to take their seats in the plain simple wooden chairs that the Chiss Ascendancy had been so kind to provide in the past two weeks just for this occasion.

"So why don't we start with Ambassador Formbi's stance on the matter of ThurThul's presence here," Leia said to start.

"Jedi Solo," Formbi began, "as I have brought up multiple times, the Chiss Ascendancy has grown nervous over Raynar Thul once again ending up as part of a Killik hive mind for the past six months. Not only does this pose a potential threat to the Ascendancy, and maybe to the rest of the galaxy for that matter, but it also outright violates the agreement made between the Chiss and the Killiks almost nine years ago. The head Phalanxes are seriously considering reopening war upon the Killiks in the Reo system as we speak."

Leia nodded before looking at ThurThul. "So what do you have to say to justify your presence among the Killiks that violates this agreement, ThurThul?"

"As far as we know, that agreement was made out of fear on the part of the Chiss so that the Colony could never reunite into the whole it once knew and loved under UnuThul," ThurThul said. "But as you can see on our world, we still struggle to survive as an individual nest with what few precious resources we have on Reonoq. The last time the Colony posed a threat to the Chiss, we were united and strong, with bountiful resources, vessels, weapons, and so much more. Here, we are but one nest, without a single starship that would allow us to travel the stars to meet our brethren, or to invite any new Joiners. We are simply looking to survive as much as we can with ThurThul to guide us."

"And just how is the nest of Thuruht managing to survive on a desert world such as Reonoq?" Leia asked.

"We forage what we can from the undergrounds of our home along with the rare spots across Reonoq that have resources such as water or nonsentient lifeforms that the Thuruht find nutrition from," ThurThul explained. "It is a hard life that we live, with our queen also having to suffer from it. We certainly do not have the ability, intelligence, skill, or suitable resources to build starships to visit the other worlds where the remaining Killik nests lie."

"So what you're saying is, as far as the Chiss Ascendancy is concerned, Thuruht prospers no more on Reonoq with ThurThul to guide the nest than it does without him?" Leia inquired.

ThurThul nodded. "It would be as if ThurThul was never here."

"Then if you don't need ThurThul," Leia said, "why do you still have him?"

"We need him because his skill and experience in the Force will help us prepare for Abeloth's next coming," ThurThul explained. "For as much as we are faring no better or worse in terms of survival with his leadership, he is still essential for when we need to confront Abeloth the next time she surfaces. The death of the Ones mere decades ago, along with Jacen Solo changing the current of the Force, very well assured that Abeloth would return without an equal to counter her."

"The Jedi managed to defeat her without the help of the Ones," Leia pointed out. "Are you saying that you doubt the Jedi's ability to defeat her again?"

"Of course we do," ThurThul outright stated. "She came closer than ever to ending the galaxy without the Ones. Only the Thuruht could stop her for sure."

"But don't you need the power and the leadership of the Ones to allow you to defeat Abeloth?" Leia asked.

"Indeed we do," ThurThul answered. "Which is why we are using ThurThul to prepare us for her next coming."

"But ThurThul is only a Jedi Knight," Leia countered. "He couldn't possibly contain the power needed for Thuruht to rise again to battle Abeloth."

"As an individual," ThurThul began, "he is a mere Jedi Knight. But powered by the mind of Thuruht, he could be so much more."

"But your nest ain't doin' so well," Han piped in. "So ThurThul can't be that much more powerful. In fact, wasn't he stronger when he was once UnuThul?"

"Yes, he was," ThurThul answered.

"And under his power, along with that of the Gorog, powered by Lomi Plo, Welk, Alema Rar, and all the other Knights who were once part of the Colony's hive mind," Leia continued, "did you know whether or not you were so powerful to successfully defeat Abeloth?"

ThurThul was quiet for a moment before he answered. "We admit that the collective power of the Jedi and the Dark Jedi we acquired as the Colony had not sufficed to take on Abeloth."

"If you admit that, then what have you not admitted?" Formbi interjected with a sharp tone.

ThurThul looked deliberately looked at the Chiss ambassador. "We have also not admitted, previously, that we had intended to collect more powerful Force-sensitives throughout the galaxy as Joiners to muster the power to counter Abeloth."

"So what you were doing under UnuThul and Lomi Plo's control, you were not only defending yourselves from the Chiss while also fighting the Galactic Alliance," Leia said. "You were intending to mount a defense against Abeloth."

"Yes," ThurThul answered.

"But you failed to do that when you lost at Tenupe," Formbi said.

"Yes. And because of the efforts of the Jedi Order, the Galactic Alliance, and the Chiss Ascendancy, the galaxy almost saw its end six months ago."

Leia shook her head. "It wasn't because of that. It was because the Sith Lord known as Darth Caedus had changed the current of the Force, which even you acknowledged."

"Abeloth was destined to return, as she always was," ThurThul said. "Your son's reversal of the current was merely a catalyst."

Leia used a calming technique to control her emotions over ThurThul acknowledging that Caedus was her son.

This was not going to be easy.


	7. Chapter 7

The Ghent imposter heaved and breathed hard to distract himself from the burning pain on the cauterized stump of his arm as Jaina continued to hold him up by his collar.

"I said _talk_, you scum!" Jaina growled, emphasizing her words to cut through the Sith's pain. "Or you'll never get any treatment for that arm."

Then the Sith began to wheeze and laugh, albeit with the pain of his dismembered and burnt arm still showing in his expression. "In exchange for what, Jedi?" he retorted. "Information that would compromise the preferred secrecy of my Masters and a cell in the basement of your Temple for the rest of my life if I'm lucky?"

"I don't think you're in such a position to be so picky about your options here, Sith," Jaina replied.

A couple breaths later, the Sith said, "Fine, fine, all right, I'll tell you. We knew about what was going on here _because_..." He deliberately trailed off as he clearly overemphasized the last word.

Then Jaina helplessly watched as a pill appeared from a corner of the Sith's mouth that he quickly bit down upon. It wasn't long before poisonous foam began to spill from his mouth. Jaina dropped him as he died on the floor.

Jag came up beside his wife, observing the body before them. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"We inform Uncle Luke," she said, "then we inform my parents."

"Why your parents?" Jag asked.

Jaina looked at her husband intently. "Jag, think. Obviously, these Sith knew what we were up to with Ghent. If that's the case, then they got something to do with the recent crisis with the Killiks."

"Why would the Sith be interested in the Killiks?" Jag asked.

"I don't know," Jaina stated. "But whatever their interest with them is, it ain't good."

"Is a Sith's interest in anything ever good?" Jag retorted.

"Good point," Jaina bantered. But that was the extent of her good humor under the circumstances before she froze in place with a suspicious look on her face as she looked away from Jag.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"We gotta get outta here," Jaina said.

And she didn't waste another second as she trod out of Ghent's apartment with Jag on her tail.

The two of them headed for the turbolift up ahead but stopped abruptly when the double doors parted and a small squadron of Coruscant Security Force officers stepped out, leveling their hand blasters up at the Fels. "Freeze!" the leader of the cops called out harshly.

Jaina and Jag raised their arms up in the air as the cops continued to approach. "Do you guys really wanna do this?" Jaina asked in a superfluous tone.

"Don't even think about pulling any of your tricks, Jedi!" the leader called out, still approaching with his squad. "We already got the whole apartment surrounded! There's no way either of you will be able to escape, even if you were both Jedi, without getting your asses blown to all nine Corellian hells!"

"Oh, I'd take your word for it, Officer," Jaina said. "But you forget one thing?"

"What's that?"

"I'm the Sword of the Jedi," she said.

In less than a second, her lightsaber was out, ignited, and blocking lethal bolts fired from the squad up ahead while Jag decided to hide behind his wife. The redirected bolts returned to their firers to blast the weapons out of their hands, forcing the cops to unleash their stun batons from their holsters. They decided to outright charge the Fels.

"Morons," Jaina murmured before she quickly deactivated and hooked her lightsaber back to her belt to trade it in for her own hand blaster. Jag took that moment to stand next to Jaina and aim his own blaster at the cops.

Within several seconds, before any of them had the chance to tell their fellow officers over their commlinks, all of the cops headed for the Fels were knocked unconscious from the stun bolts given to them by the Fels.

"I can't believe none of them even bothered to tell any of their buddies over their comms that they lost their weapons before they charged us," Jag commented as he and his wife stepped past their opponents' unconscious forms to continue their way for the turbolift.

"You'd be surprised at how stupid cops can be," Jaina replied as she and her husband stepped into the turbolift. The doors closed upon their entrance and Jaina pressed the button that would take them up to the apartment's rooftop.

Moments later, the doors opened, and an expectant group of cops waiting on the roof for their friends to have either arrested or killed the Fels found neither their friends nor the Fels standing there. Confusion roamed their minds and expressions as they looked to each other for answers as to why the elevator was empty.

But before any of them could offer any half-baked explanations, Jaina swung in sight from the ceiling of the turbolift to kick out against the initial row of cops. It was then a simple matter of Force speed and combat prowess on her part that took the next minute to dispatch the rest of the cops on the roof, rendering them all unconscious. She then trod back to the open turbolift and peaked her head inside to look to the ceiling.

"You can come down now," Jaina said to her husband, who held himself against the ceiling.

Jag then dropped and followed his wife back to the _Faux Harla_ as she used the Force to unlock and lower the boarding hatch along the way. After they both boarded and the hatch was up and sealed for spaceflight, the _Harla_ launched for the skies of Coruscant barely two minutes later. In an instant, an entire squad of police cars gave chase, but it wasn't long before they lost the YT-2400 as it disappeared into the night sky.

"Good thing it's night here," Jaina commented before she pressed a button on her console.

And with that, the _Harla_ seemed to disappear from both natural and artificial sight as the ship's perfected cloaking model activated to sheathe the YT-2400 from any and all detection.

"Amazing what the Jedi's tech department can come up with," Jag said before Jaina pulled the vessel into hyperspace to leave the Coruscant system.


	8. Chapter 8

When Ben woke up, he found himself in a starship's medbay, strapped down by titanium cables against an examination table with his utility belt and lightsaber removed and on the other side of the room. It would have been a simple matter to just use the Force to call his belt and saber over to cut himself out of this bind if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't feel the Force right now.

It was then that he noticed, at the foot of the table he lay on, a caged ysalamari staring back at him with unintelligent eyes, unaware of what it was inadvertently doing to Ben.

The young Jedi lowered his head back against the cool metallic table and sighed and frustration before vainly struggling against the cable holding him down. He stopped struggling when he heard the medbay door open, which was out of view given that it was in the direction his head was pointing.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Vestara's voice stated as she and 5U-M4N finally stepped into view. "So how're you feeling, Ben?" she asked with a motherly tone and smile.

"Where are you taking me, Khai?" Ben asked angrily.

"Aww," Vestara mocked. "Since when were we on a last name basis?"

"Since your droid here knocked me out and you decided to kidnap me," Ben countered. "Now, again, where are you taking me?"

Vestara leaned in as if she were going to kiss Ben. "That's for me to know and for you to find out," she said in a sultry tone. She leaned back and continued with, "When we get there, that is."

"Why are you doing this?" Ben asked.

"Same reason you wanted to take me," Vestara answered seriously. "You're a hell of a prize to the Sith, just as I would be to the Jedi; me, for all my knowledge of your Order and my time with you and your dad, especially with you; and you, Ben, you're the son of the Grand Master of the Jedi and..." She deliberately trailed off as she climbed on top of him, spreading her legs across his midsection while placing the palms of her hands on his chest. "Well, I think you can figure out the rest." She then leaned in to kiss him.

But as she kissed him, Ben turned his head away from her to break off the smooch and he headbutted her in the face. She fell off the side of the table and off of Ben to collapse against the floor.

"You think that would repel her, wouldn't you," 5U-M4N said in a sardonic tone to Ben.

At that moment, Vestara pushed herself from the floor to look at Ben with a predatory look on her face, which the young Jedi instantly responded with total fear.

Had Vestara's predatory gaze held the intent to harm and/or kill, Ben would have been even more defiant.

As it was, Ben knew exactly what was going to happen even before Vestara pulled her shirt off and climbed on top of Ben again to actually rip off his shirt through the titanium cable.

Before Vestara would proceed, she had to stop herself to look over at the droid.

"Why are you still here?" she asked impatiently.

"I have no reason not to be here," Five-U answered.

"Well, neither do you have a reason to be here 'til I call you back, so get out!" Vestara said.

"Why?" Five-U asked. "It's not as if I am sexually stimulated by what is about to transpire."

"Then why did I find holomags and vids of mixed species porn in your quarters?" Vestara asked, her anger of Five-U's continued presence mounting.

"You were in my quarters?" Five-U asked with shock. "Why?"

"You didn't think I'd hear the loud grunts, moans, and shouts of sexual pleasure coming from your room and I wouldn't check it out?" Vestara replied. "And don't think I didn't hear your own shouts. I don't know how you can... sexually stimulate yourself, and quite frankly, I don't care, but one thing's for certain; I'm not letting you stay in this room."

"You're not comfortable with letting others watch?" Five-U asked. "Even a mere droid?"

"Especially not a droid who's anything but mere when he can MASTURBATE TO PORN!" Vestara replied. "And especially not when he can record what I'm about to do to a powerless, tied-up Jedi so he can jack off to it, somehow, and maybe even show it to others to make a profit! Now get the hell outta here before I use the Force on your ass to bash you into spare parts and kick your remains out of this medbay so I can have my way with Ben Skywalker!"

"First, how can you use the Force if there's a ysalamari here preventing you and the Jedi from using it?" Five-U pointed out. "Second, even if you were somehow able to use the Force with the presence of a ysalamari, kicking my remains out would hurt you feet given the metal contents of my body. That, and the fact that if you were to have bashed me to spare parts, it would probably take you too long-"

"Shut the hell up and get out before I use my lightsaber on you, which, I may point out, I can still use even with a ysalamari around me," Vestara said as she unhooked her hilt from her belt.

"Now, now, wait, let's not be too hasty and unreasonable..." Five-U began.

Vestara activated her blade.

"All right, I'll go," Five-U said before he turned to the door and left.

After Five-U was gone, Vestara deactivated her weapon, replaced it on her belt, and looked back to Ben hungrily. "Now," she said as she unzipped his pants, "where were we?"


	9. Chapter 9

After the _Faux Harla_ dropped out of hyperspace in the Rishi system, Jag looked at his wife in confusion. "I thought we were continuing to the Reo system," he pointed out.

"We are," Jaina answered. "We just need to make a little stop to meet up with Talon Karrde."

"What for?" Jag asked.

"If the Sith knew about what we intended to do with Ghent, then it's likely that they somehow figured out from within Karrde's organization," Jaina said before she opened up a transmission for Karrde's personal comm.

Seconds later, the old smuggler's face appeared on the _Harla_'s cockpit console. "Jaina, Jag, what's going on?" Karrde asked. "Shouldn't you be tracking down the missing Jedi?"

"That's kinda the thing, Talon," Jaina said. "You see, we went to meet up with Ghent, but unfortunately, he was already killed and replaced by a Sith imposter who had some backup."

"Ghent's dead?!" Karrde exclaimed in shock.

"I'm sorry, Talon, but it's true," Jaina said. "Fortunately, Jag and I managed to escape Coruscant, and we now believe that if the Sith figured out what we were doing with Ghent, then they must have a spy in your organization."

"A spy, eh?" Karrde replied worriedly. "I shouldn't be surprised; though, honestly, I did think I'd be more careful with who I hired."

"Sith can be pretty sneaky," Jaina said. "Even you can be fooled by them, and they don't even need to wave a hand for a mind trick."

"And to think I didn't need to worry about anything since the Yuuzhan Vong," Karrde said.

"Do you know who could have been aware of the operation with Ghent?" Jaina asked.

"Actually, yes, I do," Karrde said. "There's..." He trailed off as the sound of a door opening was heard, and Karrde looked over view of the comm with a curious expression. "What?" Then a scorching hole in the man's head followed a bare millisecond after the firing of a blaster out of view.

Jaina and Jag looked on in shock before the view dissolved to static, most likely because Karrde's comm had been blasted by the same gun that ended his life.

"We gotta get down there and stop the Sith responsible for this," Jaina said.

"Shouldn't we continue to the Reo system?" Jag asked.

"And leave Karrde's people to take on the Sith?" Jaina countered. "They won't stand a chance." With that, she throttled her ship forward for Rishi.

.

"C'mon, Ben, you gotta admit," Vestara said as she leaned over his still-strapped, still-naked form on the medbay table of the ship they were traveling aboard. "You liked that as much as I did." Unlike the bare Jedi before her, Vestara was fully clothed as she nibbled at his ear sensually.

But Ben didn't appear to share the Sith's enthusiasm; his expression was limned in trauma and anger over being outright violated. "Where are you taking me?" he managed to ask in a relatively calm manner in spite of his predicament.

Vestara sighed in mock-frustration. "Oh, Ben, ever the loyal, straight-to-business, practical Jedi, you are," she said before she climbed on him again. "You shouldn't have to worry about that, you know. Wouldn't you like to just spend time with me and not make this such a big deal?"

"You just raped me, Vestara," he said, tears forming at his eyes. He then shouted, "Do you really think I shouldn't make this into a big deal?!" He managed to move his body just enough, in the heat of his anger, to coerce Vestara to move off of him instinctively.

The young Sith looked back at him with a look of concern and something close to regret. "Ben, I... I thought you would like it."

Ben ground his teeth as he hissed, "Just as you thought I'd like your constant betrayals of my trust, my dad's trust, the Jedi Order's trust?! Hmm? You thought I'd appreciate the fact that you nearly ended my cousin's life just to save your skin?!"

"I didn't intend to kill Allana!" Vestara replied defensively, all traces of what could be interpreted as regret for raping Ben having just evaporated. "I deliberately spared her when I threw that thermal detonator at your uncle's ship! I saved her, don't you see?!"

"And you nearly killed my uncle!" Ben pointed out. "And you risked Allana's life anyway when the rest of your kind went after her, blowing her cover as Amelia even after she survived! Do you have any idea how devastated she was after she lost her friend, Bazel Warv?"

"I had no choice, Ben!" Vestara countered. "They were going to kill me for betraying them! If I didn't give them that information about Allana being the Jedi queen-"

"If you didn't give them that information about Allana being the Jedi queen, she wouldn't be hunted by the Sith, right now, would she?" Ben interrupted.

"And I'd be dead, don't forget," Vestara said.

"So much the better," Ben scoffed.

"You wouldn't be saying that if I did allow the Sith to kill me and spare Allana her secrecy," Vestara argued. "By now, you'd still probably be grieving over my death."

"I've dealt with grief before," Ben said. "I think I could have handled yours. It's much better than living with the knowledge that you could never be with me anyway."

"You'd rather live with the delusion that I could be like you, huh, Ben?" Vestara asked.

"What do you think?" Ben retorted.

Vestara didn't answer. Instead, she simply walked over to a cabinet nearby the table that Ben lay upon, took up a bowl of water, and pressed it near his lips. At first, Ben tried to resist, but she managed to calm him down by saying, "It's just water, trust me."

Ben hissed. "Like I could do that ever again."

"You really have no choice, you know," Vestara said, any note of sympathy or empathy in her tone gone. "Now drink or you'll dehydrate."

Ben sighed but acquiesced as he drank from the bowl.

"See?" Vestara asked. "Just water." She then replaced the bowl on the cabinet and left the medbay.


	10. Chapter 10

The _Faux Harla_ broke through Rishi's atmosphere and soared as fast as it could for the building where the now-late Talon Karrde had stationed his headquarters. But just as their ship was several miles away, Jaina and Jag saw a single A-wing starfighter blast off from the top of that building's landing pad just as several of Karrde's people were scrambling for their own vessels to give chase.

Then, when the A-wing was several hundred miles in the air and reaching for space in the bare quarter of a minute it departed from the landing pad, the building exploded, killing everyone on the landing pad in an instant. As the fire that came turned into a flaming arrow pointed for the sky, the resultant shock wave caught up with the _Harla_ and sent it tumbling in the opposite direction out of Jaina's control.

The ship's Jedi Master pilot desperately fought the console that defied her as she and her husband felt their beloved vessel twirling end-over-end in a way that the inertial compensator couldn't account for; even as she tried to regain control of the _Harla_, she and Jag were pushed back in their seats, their teeth gritting against the force that may very well signal the end of their lives.

But in the end, after the shock wave died down and the _Harla_ was out of its blast radius, Jaina finally managed to successfully regain control of her ship just as she saw through the viewport that it was about to collide into a building up ahead.

Without hesitation, she wrestled the controls to put the ship into a steep climb that resulted only in the _Harla_'s belly scraping against the durasteel framework of the building that it nearly crashed into for a few dozen meters before it reached past the roof and was soaring back into the air.

Jaina then turned the ship in the direction that she remembered that the lone A-wing, which she had no doubt been piloted by the Sith who killed Karrde and subsequently blew up his headquarters, had flown toward. She saw with both her naked eyes and the _Harla_'s sensors that it was just reaching the end of Rishi's gravity well, and it was clear that it was planning to depart the system via hyperspace.

"Plot its course, Jag!" Jaina urgently demanded. "In case it gets away, we can at least follow it!"

Jag set to work immediately on his side of the console board as Jaina throttled her ship forward as fast as it could go, short of going into hyperspace of course, so that it broke through Rishi's atmospheric fold in a little over five seconds and began chugging out lasers to incapacitate, if not outright destroy, the A-wing.

But before the first laser could hit the starfighter's hindquarters, it disappeared into hyperspace.

"Damn!" Jaina cursed, her fists hitting parts of the console before her without accidentally pressing any buttons. She then turned to her husband. "Did you get its course?"

"Yeah," Jag nodded.

Jaina looked at the hyperspace coordinates that the A-wing plotted, then wordlessly set to input those same coordinates. Within less than half a minute, the _Harla_ was once again in hyperspace.

.

Ben's eyes shot open from sleep in the darkness of the medbay as he felt the sensation of the Force again. He looked up in the unlit room and could discern, at the foot of the table he still laid on, an oddly circular form that gleamed a silver ray of light even in the dark.

"Can you feel the Force again?" 5U-M4N's voice asked at a lower modulation.

"Yes," Ben replied. "You killed the ysalamari, didn't you?"

"You're welcome," Five-U replied sardonically as he moved over to Ben's left to undo the straps at his feet before he removed the straps holding down his arms.

"Why are you helping me?" Ben asked as he sat up on the table, his body feeling sore for having laid there for so long; that, and the brutal rape that Vestara commenced upon him.

"You are a Skywalker, yes?" Five-U asked. "Descended from one Shmi Skywalker?"

"Who?" Ben asked as he stood up off from the table.

"She had a son named Anakin, didn't she?" Five-U pressed.

"Anakin Skywalker?" Ben asked. "Yeah, I'm his grandson. Why do you ask?"

"Then I didn't make a mistake," Five-U said. "Come on, I already loaded your clothes in the escape pod, so we can get out of here while the Sith is still asleep. But we have to be quiet." With that, Five-U said no more as he grabbed Ben's wrist and carefully led him to the door to the medbay.

A few minutes later, after walking down the darkened corridors of the medical freighter that they were aboard, the two of them finally made it to the escape pod that Five-U promised, whose lit interior, Ben saw, had his clothes and robes. He then entered to dress himself up as Five-U followed him in, closing the door of the pod, sealing it from the vacuum of space, and promptly launched them away from the freighter.

Mere seconds after the pod was launched, a Mindabaal Custom yacht dropped out of hyperspace several hundred miles away from the pod. Both vessels then began racing for each other to meet up halfway for the Custom to catch the pod in a tractor beam that sealed it against its airlock, allowing Ben and Five-U to enter this vessel without any trouble. There, after entering the ship from the cockpit, Ben and Five-U were greeted by a multi-appendaged medical droid dressed up as the vessel's captain.

Ben had a feeling that if Five-U would be greedy and enjoy pornography, then this droid really was the captain of this ship.

"Welcome back, Five-U," the droid captain stated as he committed a salute that Five-U easily returned. The captain then turned to Ben. "And welcome aboard, Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker."

"I assume you're the captain?" Ben asked.

"Indeed I am," the captain said. "I am Captain 11-4D, but you may call me Captain Ford for short. And I can see now, based on the scans that I've been running on you from my visual receptors since you stepped aboard, that you are, in fact, the descendent of one of my first masters."

"You mean Shmi Skywalker?" Ben asked.

"You are descended from her, but she was not a master of mine," Ford said.

"Then were you a droid owned by Anakin Skywalker?" Ben asked.

"Oh, no, you see, I did not work for anyone by the name of Skywalker," Ford clarified.

"Then who did you work for?" Ben asked.

Before Ford could answer, he hesitated. "We must leave this system now," he said before turning for the cockpit. Five-U followed wordlessly, and Ben, after standing in confusion, decided to join them.

At the cockpit, Ford took control while Five-U sat in the copilot's seat just as the yacht was beginning to take hits from behind.

"You didn't tell me that that Sith manned that medical frigate with laser banks!" Ford exclaimed to Five-U as he began plotting coordinates to enter hyperspace.

"I didn't think it was pertinent information!" Five-U countered. "I didn't know she was going to wake up!"

"Whatever, just make sure she can't track us!" Ford said as they continued their preparations.

"You sure the shields can hold?" Ben asked the captain.

"Yep," Ford replied before he pulled down the throttle to enter hyperspace.

"And she won't be able to track us now," Five-U said as the viewport outside was filled with the familiar blue void.


	11. Chapter 11

"Jag, make sure the cloak is on when we get out of hyperspace," Jaina told him. "We wanna get the drop on the Sith, you know."

"Got it," Jag replied as he set to work.

A few moments later, the sight provided by the viewport provided by them reverted from the blue tunnel of hyperspace to the star-studded blackness of real space. There, hundreds of miles before the _Harla_ was the A-wing that was the only other vessel to escape the explosion of Talon Karrde's now-destroyed base, and it was now boarding a medical frigate.

"You think we should continue following them, or just take out their engines, board them, and question them after we kick their asses?" Jag asked his wife.

"I'd say follow them so we can find out who their masters are," Jaina said, "but since we gotta tell Mom and Dad about the Sith's likely involvement with the recent Killik crisis, we're already off track as it is. So let's question them here."

"You sure you don't wanna figure out who their masters are?" Jag asked. "That seems like a pretty big thing that'll help the Order."

"Don't worry, honey," Jaina said, "I already got a plan for us to get back on that after we tell Mom and Dad..."

.

"We can see that those among the Chiss and Jedi parties have grown weary with this debate," ThurThul stated after several hours of discussion in the throne room. "Shall we leave it here for the rest of the day and pick it up tomorrow?"

"I believe that is most wise," Leia agreed before looking to Formbi. "Do you feel that it is best, Ambassador Formbi?"

"As much as I want to resolve this dispute for the Phalanxes, rest is a good idea," Formbi said before standing up from his seat.

"Excellent," ThurThul stated as everyone else began standing up. "We have already prepared rooms for you to slumber for the night."

"Rooms?" Formbi asked suspiciously.

ThurThul looked at him curiously. "Of course; it is common courtesy in a debate that may very well last for several days, is it not?"

Formbi glared at the leader of Thuruht. "How do you know this debate will last for days?"

"We are not exactly sure," ThurThul stated evenly, "but for this occasion, we believed that it was best if this debate were to last for days."

"How courteous of you," Formbi replied just as evenly. "But if you don't mind, my party and I would prefer to return to the blockade for the next twenty-four hours."

"Please stay," ThurThul pleaded in his monotonous tone. "We would feel that it would be an insult if you turned down our offer of hospitality."

"With all due respect," Formbi began, "given the circumstances of this debate, I believe that it would be, quite frankly, safer if I return to the rest of the Chiss fleet."

"You believe that we would dare do something as assassinate you while you and your party slept, Ambassador?" ThurThul asked, his tone starting to sound bitter.

"It is a possibility that we must take into consideration," Formbi said. "That, and the fact that you had betrayed the trust of the agreement facilitated between our species years ago, I can't be entirely sure if your hospitality would, in fact, open up any attempts on my life. And any member within any of the Phalanxes would be a fool to fall for something like that, even if your offer of hospitality was genuine."

ThurThul and Formbi began staring each other down for several seconds in dead silence, filling the room with tension as to what the former would respond with.

"Very well," ThurThul ultimately said. He then turned to the Solo party. "What about you, Jedi Solo? Would you turn down our offer of hospitality?"

"I think that would be best, no offense," Leia said.

"Thank you," Han and Allana both managed to whisper into Leia's ear.

ThurThul sighed. "What a shame. I wish we could make this easier."

Before anyone could ask ThurThul what he meant, the sound of several lightsabers sounded outside the throne room. Everyone turned to the source of the sound, which was the room's exit. The double doors that made up the room's only entrance and exit opened up, revealing six young alien Jedi Knights with their blades alight.

From left to right, the first Knight was a female Duros named Rigall Brarun, who carried a pink-hued lightsaber. The second Knight was a male Rodian named Qwert who carried a green-bladed lightsaber to appropriately match his skin hue. The third Knight was a female Bothan named Kolir Hu'lya whose blade shined blue. The fourth Knight was a male Cerean named Marr Idi-Shael, whose yellow-bladed lightsaber was passed onto him by his former Master, Jaden Korr. The fifth Knight was a female Sullustan named Zierra Zuban, whose blade glowed purple. And lastly, the sixth Knight was a male, green-bladed-saber-wielding Gran named Jaips Greeq.

And all bore down on the Solo and Chiss parties with unyielding, threatening glares.

"The missing Knights!" Leia exclaimed before whirling on ThurThul. "You captured them and placed them into your hive mind, didn't you?"

"They are now part of Thuruht," ThurThul stated simply. "Just as you will all be very soon."

"You lied to us!" Formbi shouted at the leader of the nest as he and his guards whipped out their charrics from their holsters and aimed it for him. "Stay where you are and we won't..."

Formbi trailed off as a wall of non-Joiner Thuruht members quickly formed a wall in front of their Joiner king, blocking him from any potential harm that the lethal charric bolts would provide.

"Neither you nor your meager Ascendancy can prevent the return of the Colony, Ambassador," ThurThul interrupted, "nor can it stop the power that will ensure the galaxy's protection from Abeloth's own return!"

And with that, the hive-minded Jedi Knights, excluding ThurThul, charged for the Solos and the Chiss with their Killik brethren.


	12. Chapter 12

Vestara met her fellow Sith, a blue-skinned male Twi'lek named Trei Pra, just as he entered the medical frigate from its docking bay, having just disembarked from his A-wing.

"You managed to kill Karrde?" Vestara asked.

"Yeah," Pra replied. "Took out his headquarters and most of his associates for good measure. You managed to capture your boyfriend?"

Vestara gritted her teeth against the Twi'lek insolence. "If by 'my boyfriend,' you mean Ben Skywalker, then yes, I did capture him."

"Oh, good, so where is he?" Pra asked.

"That's kinda the thing," Vestara said in a deflated tone. "I managed to capture him, but... he got away."

"Ah, so that's why I don't sense another presence aboard this vessel," Pra replied in a patronizing tone. His voice then turned serious as he glared at the human. "How in Krayt's name did you lose him?"

"A droid I recruited for the venture betrayed me," Vestara explained. "He got Ben... uh, Skywalker off in a yacht that escaped my grasp."

"How could a droid betray you anyway?" Pra asked.

"Let's just say that's not the strangest thing about him," Vestara remarked. "But that's not the point. Basically, he was one of those emancipated droids who gained actual sentience after that slave uprising months back, just before the Lost Tribe took Coruscant."

"I see," Pra said before asking, "You didn't think to triangulate the hyperspace coordinates they plotted?"

"I tried that, but they somehow managed to scramble the coordinates from being read by the frigate," Vestara explained.

"Lord Krayt is going to be very disappointed in you, Khai," Pra sneered. "Capturing the younger Skywalker was an essential task and you-"

Pra was cut off as the medical frigate shook violently, knocking both Sith off their feet and to the floor.

"The engines!" Vestara exclaimed. "They've been destroyed!" She then looked directly at Pra. "Did anyone follow you from hyperspace?"

"No one came out after I did!" Pra said. "I made sure no one could follow me from Rishi!"

"Get out there and take out whatever's coming after us!" Vestara demanded as she began standing up and rushing off to the cockpit.

"Who are you to give me orders?" Pra growled as he, too, stood up.

Vestara stopped in her tracks and swiveled around to face the Twi'lek. "Can we argue about this later?" then she turned back for the cockpit.

Pra gave her one last glare at the back of her head before turning back for the hangar bay.

Vestara, meanwhile, returned to the cockpit and sat back down to look out the forward viewport and find where the perpetrator(s) who blew out her engines were. She wasn't surprised to find no one out there, but she undoubtedly was when she didn't find any vessel other than her own on the sensors.

Then it came to her; she recalled one of the Jedi Order's most dangerous weapons, which immediately prompted her to take out her comm from her belt and called Pra.

"Uh, Pra, you could be looking for a StealthX or maybe an entire fleet of them if we're unlucky," Vestara told him.

"Why?" Pra asked. "Nothing on your sensors?" The sound of his A-wing's engines getting ready roared in the background at the other end of the comm.

"Yeah," Vestara answered.

"Good, I've been looking for a challenge," the Twi'lek replied arrogantly. "Pra out."

Bare moments later, her fellow Sith's A-wing came on her radar and soon came to her naked eyes as she saw it appear miles away from her forward viewport.

Seconds passed as Pra searched the empty space for any potential enemies. His search ended almost immediately as twin lasers shot from above his A-wing and blew out both his engines, sending him into a downward spiral (relative to the frigate's position in this empty system). Vestara, meanwhile, targeted her lasers for the source of the lasers that she just pinpointed, but watched in dismay as the lasers gradually dissipated into nothingness in the vast distance of space.

Then, suddenly, the medical frigate shuddered violently again as its laser banks were ironically destroyed by lasers that seemed to come out of the nowhere that was just a few miles away. The shock wave sent Vestara falling from her chair.

_Great_, she thought. _We're sitting ducks now. If only that masturbating droid didn't take the only escape pod that this ship had with the only man I want to screw_.

.

After Jaina managed to take care of the medical frigate's laser banks in her StealthX, the _Faux Harla_ reappeared as it activated its tractor beam to capture the tumbling A-wing. Its rear was pointed at the _Harla_ so that it couldn't damage it with its still-functional laser banks. Of course, that wouldn't be the case once the starfighter was actually inside the YT-2400.

So Jaina simply flew beside the A-wing that was being reeled in and blew out its laser banks just as she did with the sitting frigate. The resulting explosion was minor and didn't break the tractor lock on the otherwise-intact starfighter. She then followed it into the _Harla_ in order to face down the Sith in the lightsaber duel that would undoubtedly follow.

"Hey, Jag, make sure that the other Sith aboard that frigate doesn't escape in a pod or something," Jaina warned him.

"If he or she could do that, I think they would've done it by now," Jag replied.

"Well, keep an eye on it anyway," Jaina said. "I'm gonna take care of the one you're reeling in."

"I'd say good luck, but I think we both know that luck's got nothing to do with Solos," Jag bantered.

"No, just Fels," Jaina quipped back.

"Fair enough," Jag said before he signed off.

Moments later, after both the StealthX and the A-wing were docked, both combatants in those vessels shot out of them with their lightsabers ablaze. They met in midair and their blades clashed instantly as they descended to the floor. Upon landing, their knees buckled, nearly knocking both of them off balance, which they both used to their advantage as they used the Force against the other to blow them back across the hangar bay.

While Jaina managed to hit the floor in a backward roll that she easily stood up from, the Twi'lek Sith, on the other hand, crashed hard against the floor and slid across it like a hoverboard for several meters before coming to a stop. He barely managed to recover any dignity as he pushed himself into a backward roll that he first ended up in a crouch from before leaping to his feet just as he was met blade-to-blade with the Sword of the Jedi again.

And she was clearly winning the duel as she forced him back during the clashing of their sabers.

The fight didn't last long before Jaina managed to get the Twi'lek up against a wall, twirled the blade out of his hands, and then finished the fight by pointing the tip of her sword near his throat.

"Give up?" Jaina asked.

The Twi'lek growled, "Never." He then used the Force to push Jaina back.

But the Sword of the Jedi simply pivoted out of the way of the resultant wave, and as the Sith began recalling his now-inactive saber to his hand, Jaina stopped its trajectory halfway from its owner as she decapitated him in one swift stroke.

After the Sith's body collapsed near its dismembered head, Jaina looked down to regard the pieces as she shook her head. "Sith these days," she remarked. "They just don't make 'em like they used to."


	13. Chapter 13

One of the Chiss guards shouted something in his native language before he replaced his commlink in his pocket and continued to fire against the Killiks around him with his brethren and the Solos helping him.

"What did he say?" Leia asked Formbi as she dueled Kolir Hu'lya and Jaips Greeq simultaneously.

"He said he can't contact anyone in the blockade!" Formbi answered as he continued to shoot down the Killiks that tried to kill him. "Our signal's somehow being jammed!"

"How can these bugs manage to do something like that when they barely have anything to survive from?!" Han asked, holding back Marr Idi-Shael and Rigall Brarun with his blaster while also managing to shoot down some Thuruht that encroached his area.

"Signal jammers from these Knights' StealthXs, no doubt," Leia managed to answer just before she dismembered Greeq, causing him to fall to the ground in utter pain. Leia, meanwhile, continued to duel Hu'lya singly.

Immediately seeing that the Bothan needed help against the human's superior skills, Brarun disengaged from blocking off Han's shots and flipped across the room to aid Hu'lya. That left Han to deal with Idi-Shael and the number of Killiks remaining around him as he joined Formbi and his guards, side-by-side, as they fended for themselves.

"Grandma, I thought we weren't supposed to hurt the Knights!" Allana shouted in the midst of battle as she was being beat back in a lightsaber duel against Qwert.

"No, honey, we just don't have to kill them!" Leia answered as she managed to twirl out from between Hu'lya and Brarun before dismembering the former's left leg, sending her screaming to the floor with Greeq. "We can bring them back so they can be healed up later!"

"Oh!" Allana exclaimed. "Well, if that's the case..." She deliberately trailed off before she dropped to her back to send a Force wave against her Rodian opponent, blasting him off his feet to knock him unconscious against the wall behind him. Allana then performed a backward rollover straight to her feet and turned to engage Zierra Zuban, the only other hive-minded Knight left, taking the stout Sullustan away from blocking off Han and the Chiss's bolts.

Eventually, as Han's blaster and the Chiss's charrics began overheating from the constant shooting, the first sign of a weapon frying up from overuse came from the same guard who declared that their comm signals were being jammed. Once smoke arose from the top of his gun, it seemed to herald the end of his life as a mid-sized Killik dodged one of his shots to tackle him in the legs, sending him collapsing to the floor before that same Killik used its thin yet powerful arms to break his neck.

One of that guard's fellows turned and shot the Thuruht member straight in the head, but in turn, a slightly smaller Killik managed to sneak past his attention to snatch the weapon out of his hand and used it to shoot him point-blank in the torso. The Chiss collapsed against one of his fellow guards, sending him to the floor was well, where one of the nearby Killiks took the opportunity to spear him in the head with a a sharp, golden staff.

It took the death of his fourth guard, who was also speared by that same staff in the femoral artery, for Formbi to recognize that he would not live, given the circumstances. So the ambassador exclaimed, "There's too many of them! We must retreat!" He repeated that quickly in Cheunh for the sake of his two remaining men.

"But what about the Knights?!" Allana asked.

"We'll come back for them later when we have the opportunity, time, and the means!" Leia said as she twirled her blade against Brarun's and dismembered her by the hand, sending her collapsing to the floor in pain with the pained Hu'lya and Greeq. "The Killiks can treat them in the meantime!" Then she leaped across the room where Allana was still engaged with Zuban, twirled the lightsaber out of the Sullustan's hands, then kicked her up her jowls to knock her unconscious. "Time to go, sweetie!" Leia said as she grabbed Allana by the arm and led her to the exit of the throne room with Han and the three Chiss; by now, C-3PO and the Chiss's own protocol droid were mechanical heaps on the floor.

_We'll come back for you, Threepio_, Leia thought before turning her full attention to the door ahead.

The Solos and their Chiss allies managed to leave the throne room with an entire mob of Killiks at their heel. Leia and Allana decided to help Han and their blue-skinned fellows shoot down their pursuers, lightening the firing load on the near-fried blasters of the males in the group as they intended to depart the Celestial Palace.

But just when they were only several meters from the exit of the palace, Formbi abruptly stopped and grasped one hand at his chest with a look of utter agony as his expression. He collapsed first to his knees, then fell prone to the floor while the rest of the party continued ahead of him for several steps before they stopped and turned back to him. One of the guards shouted something, but Formbi replied in his native tongue with a wave of his hand, which prompted the two remaining Chiss to turn back and continue running. The Solos joined them without hesitation.

Outside, the Solos and the Chiss continued running for their vessels, the surviving members of Thuruht from the Celestial Palace scrambled out of the exit in a large pile like the insects they were. The Killiks' charges didn't stop firing, but they did stop in their tracks when the largest member of Thuruht rose from the ground to tower over the party of five individuals.

That large member then dove for them, coercing the party to move off to the sides, the Solos on the one side, the Chiss on the other. Unfortunately, one of the guards was too slow to react, and ended up crushed by the large Thuruht member as it burrowed itself back into the ground. Regardless, the Solos and the sole remaining guard didn't break stride as they continued to hurry forward. Unfortunately for the last Chiss, when the large Thuruht burst from the earth again, it took the guard with him in its gaping maw, where he was surely eaten.

Now the Solos were on their own as they ran for the _Millennium Falcon_.

"Why do you think... they didn't destroy the _Falcon_... so we won't be able to leave?" Allana asked in between hard breaths from running for so long.

"Maybe... it's because... they know I'll... kick their... collective asses... for that," Han managed to rasp as he tried to to keep pace with his Force-powerful wife and granddaughter.

"If only... it were that... simple, Han," Leia replied. By then, though, Leia had already gotten it into her head that perhaps the Killiks didn't want to destroy the _Falcon_ so they could use it as a vessel to escape from Reonoq, along with the Jedi Knights' StealthXs and the Chiss shuttle; provided they could even get past the Chiss blockade, of course. But Leia knew she'd run out of breath, even with her Force abilities, if she even began trying to tell Allana that.

The ground behind them erupted from the giant Thuruht member as the rest of its smaller brethren began running around it to continue hunting down the Solos. That was when Allana decided to take the opportunity to briefly turn around, whip out her lightsaber, promptly activate it, and threw it, using the Force, toward the giant Thuruht, where its soaring trajectory brought it to cut its searing blade across the gargantuan Killik's eyes before traveling up to sever its mandibles, literally cutting it off from the hive mind.

And without eyes of its own or of its brethren, the giant Thuruht began stomping around on the ground, blind and in pain, and unfortunate members of its hive were squashed beneath its heels as they continued to chase the Solos.

"Nice move, Allana," Leia commented as her granddaughter recalled her lightsaber to her hand.

"Never thought... I'd ever get to see... a bug squash other bugs... in my life," Han said.

"You like... seeing that?" Leia retorted.

"I love seeing it," Han said. "Just as much as I... love you, honey."

"How sweet," Leia replied sardonically just as they reached the _Falcon_, where the boarding ramp was already lowering in place thanks to Leia's Force use. The three of them then ran up the ramp and to the cockpit, where it began closing as Allana pushed the retract button for the ramp along the way.

With Killiks still approaching them, it was only slightly more than a quarter of a minute before the _Falcon_'s belly turret lowered into view to began blasting approaching Killiks into either charred corpses or even vapor. It even managed to shoot down the lumbering behemoth that was blind and cut off from its hive, turning it into a flaming, crispy pile of chitin just as the _Falcon_ began lifting off into the air.

Minutes later, it broke Reonoq's atmosphere and soared for the Chiss fleet in the distance.

But on the _Falcon_'s radar, it found that there exactly seven blimps that registered that was coming up behind the ancient YT-1300, their source being Reonoq. Six of them were StealthXs, which the _Falcon_ could detect via a special sensor package installed courtesy of the Jedi Order, and the last was a Chiss shuttle.

"I hate bugs," Han murmured.

Leia then commed the Chiss fleet. "This is Jedi Knight Leia Organa Solo. Is there anyone I can speak to?" She silently prayed to the Force, hoping there would be a Chiss there who could speak Basic; with Formbi gone, the Solos were on their own with the Ascendancy.

"This is Admiral Ar'alani," an elderly feminine voice speaking in passive Basic replied. "What is it, Jedi Solo?"

"The Killiks are hostile," Leia stated. "I repeat, the Killiks are hostile. Ambassador Formbi's entire guard is dead, and his and our protocol droids have been destroyed. The shuttle coming up behind us is now under control of the Thuruht, and it is aided by six StealthX starfighters that your sensors cannot pick up!"

There was silence on the other end of the comm as muted voices, one of them being Ar'alani's, speaking in Cheunh as they tried opening up a transmission that Leia wasn't surprised to find that the Killiks wouldn't respond to. Then Ar'alani came back on the line fully and speaking Leia's language. "Your story has been confirmed," the admiral said. "We will help you. We are sending an entire squadron compliment of clawcraft to aid you."

"Great," Leia said as Han turned the _Falcon_ for the seven incoming vessels from Reonoq. "Thanks."

The clawcraft managed to catch up with the aged YT-1300 before they were halfway to the seven other ships.

"And you said this was the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy," Leia remarked.

"I'm still not giving Jag any credit for their speed," Han said.

Leia smiled at her husband's signature stubbornness before the seven enemy vessels began firing upon them.

The _Falcon_ dove beneath the incoming lasers while the clawcraft squad peeled up and lopped around to continue on course, firing along the way in spite of not finding any targets.

But the apparently-random shots they took resulted in six explosions of vessels that were previously not there, rendering six out of seven of their enemies out of the count.

"Well, that was easy," Han said before he managed to easily blow up the poorly-shielded, poorly-armored Chiss shuttle with a few of his own lasers.

"We just can't seem to find any decent enemies to fight these days, do we?" Leia asked. Then she noticed the clawcraft speeding for Reonoq. "Where are they going?"

"Jedi Solo," Ar'alani's voice returned. "Given your information, we have now sent our squadron to raid Reonoq to exterminate Thuruht."

"No!" Leia exclaimed. "We must recover the seven Knights, including Raynar Thul! And there's still a chance that Ambassador Formbi is alive!"

"We cannot risk it," Ar'alani stated. "Even if the ambassador was still alive, the Phalanxes will no doubt consider him as acceptable collateral damage."

"And the Jedi Knights?" Leia reminded the admiral. "Do you really want to spark another conflict with the Order if you decide to kill those Knights?"

"We had no qualms of going against you or the Galactic Alliance years ago," Ar'alani said. "What makes you think we'll back down now, especially now that both the Order is now weaker without the Alliance, and the Killiks are weaker now that they are isolated in one nest on one world?"

"Don't think the Hapes Consortium won't go against you with the Jedi," Leia said.

"They are lesser in power than the Alliance," Ar'alani said. "Like I said, your Order is weaker for it. And I suggest you don't try to stop us here; even the _Millennium Falcon_ isn't powerful enough to take on a whole squad of clawcraft, never mind this very fleet."

Han looked to his wife as to what they should do. Leia solemnly nodded, affirming that they needed to do what needed to be done.

"Oh, yeah?" Han retorted to Ar'alani. "Well, just watch us."

"This should be amusing," Ar'alani remarked sardonically before signing off.

Han then pushed the throttle and raced the _Falcon_ back for Reonoq.


	14. Chapter 14

Vestara felt Pra's death in the Force about a couple minutes or so after his A-wing seemingly disappeared out of existence before her eyes and the medical frigate's sensors. After the Twi'lek died, his human counterpart watched in surprise as a YT-2400 appeared to just manifest hundreds of miles from the viewport, and Vestara saw that it was now flying toward the frigate and off to the side. She knew that those aboard-for she could sense two familiar presences, Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel-were intending to board the frigate to take her, whether it'd be dead or alive.

Knowing that she didn't have the time or resources to formulate a plan to even escape, Vestara decided to try the only thing she could do left: Fight.

She stood up from the chair she sat in and rushed out of the cockpit, rushing headlong to the airlock, unhooking and activating her lightsaber along the way as she felt the frigate connecting with the YT-2400. Sure enough, once she rounded the corner for the airlock, having already heard the activation of a lightsaber just a few meters back, she wasn't surprised to find Jaina standing there, her purple lightsaber alight and ready to cauterize Vestara's blood.

Jaina's eyes, in turn, seemed like they could do just that all on their own without the help of a super hot blade.

"Jaina," Vestara said. "How pleasant it is to see you again after all these months."

"Save it, Khai," Jaina replied intently. "I'm only giving you one choice and one chance here. Surrender or-"

"Die, yeah, I got that," Vestara said. "Seemed like an empty platitude that your Order gave before you murdered thousands of my people back on Coruscant."

"They made it an empty platitude when they decided to fight," Jaina replied. "You wanna make it that for yourself?"

"I think you want me to make it more for myself than I do," Vestara said.

"Damn right, I do," Jaina said as she began to slowly walk toward the Sith. "Especially after you nearly had my cousin and parents murdered, and revealed Allana's secret to boot. You know how badly she grieved after her best friend died because of you?"

"I won't attempt to justify myself to you like I tried to do with Ben," Vestara said derisively.

"Wait, Ben?" Jaina asked. "What did you do to Ben?"

Vestara was about to tell Jaina when she stopped herself as a plan almost instantly formed in her mind; it was a long shot, but it was the best she had just short of dueling Jaina herself. The Sith then smiled menacingly as she said, "If you kill me, you'll never find out."

"Nice try," Jaina replied. "Even if I did agree to let you go, I think you forgot you're aboard a medical frigate whose engines have just been blown out; there's no way you're going anywhere. And besides, we can make you tell us where Ben is without needing to resort to torture like you Sith would; that is, if you agree to surrender."

Vestara sighed; it seemed like she would have to duel Jaina after all. "And why should I do that?"

"Because there's no other way you're getting out of here alive, Khai," Jaina replied. "I just killed your Twi'lek friend, so you don't have a chance of getting past me."

Vestara laughed. "I guess you're going by the assumption that I'm still a Sith Tyro, huh?"

"So you're a Saber now?" Jaina asked. She shrugged. "Still can't beat me."

"Maybe not," Vestara replied. She then brought the tip of her lightsaber up in Jaina's direction. "But a Sith Lord like me certainly has a fighting chance." With no more words, she leaped forward and clashed blades with the Jedi.

In the opening moments of the duel, Vestara was forcing Jaina back the hallway of the frigate in a flurry of wild strikes and counters. Several meters away from the airlock now, Jaina halted her backwards progress as she twirled her and Vestara's blades into a lock that allowed her to cement herself in place with the Force while she stared down her opponent. Less than five seconds later, Vestara broke her blade out of Jaina's block, but the Jedi used that distraction to her advantage to force Vestara back a few steps with a few blocked slashes before the Sith managed to trap the Jedi's blade in a block of her own, opening up an opportunity to kick Jaina in the sternum and send her flying back several meters.

Jaina came crashing across the deck in a painful heap, though not losing her lightsaber in the process. Once she landed solidly on her back, she quickly brought her blade up to guard against a strike from Vestara, who was then blown back to the ceiling above her with a Force shove from her downed opponent. But regardless of the impact, Vestara still managed to block the decapitating strike that Jaina intended as the former descended back to the deck, and the Sith managed to send a powerful punch across her foe's face.

The Jedi stumbled back from the attack, but was instantly on the guard again when Vestara tried to strike her down once more. A few clashes later, the combatants decided to temporarily halt their duel and regard each other.

"Impressive," Jaina commented in a genuinely admirable tone, as if they were just engaged in a mere sparring match as fellow Jedi-or Sith, as Vestara liked to think-than a duel to the death. "You've improved in your skills and abilities since we last met. Those few months really did a lot for your training, I'll admit; it's more than I could say for your friend."

"He was an arrogant fool," Vestara stated. "I was deigned a Sith Lord by Ship himself."

"Ship, eh?" Jaina asked. Then she nodded as if in recognition. "He can hold his own against me in a dogfight, I'll say, so I can certainly trust his judgment of others' skills at least." She then leaned forward to trade a few more clashes against Vestara before backing away again. "So you, a Sith Lord. I can honestly see that."

"Certainly means a lot coming from the Sword of the Jedi," Vestara replied genuinely before ending up in another brief bout with Jaina.

"Then take this into heart before I kill you," Jaina said. "Thanks for offering me at least something of a challenging opponent." The next bout they ended up in lasted for a good minute with no more words spoken between them.

When that bout ended, Vestara managed to pull a move that not only rendered Jaina's lightsaber in two, but also Jaina herself in two, right across the waist.

Vestara watched triumphantly as the Sword of the Jedi fell in two at her feet.

"Careful what you wish for," Vestara smirked.


	15. Chapter 15

Throughout the galaxy, Jedi who had been close to Jaina, or even met her for a brief second, felt the pain of the Sword of the Jedi.

On Reonoq, where the _Millennium Falcon_ was fighting off the clawcraft fighter squadron in the planet's atmosphere, the YT-1300 shot down the third clawcraft that attempted to bombard the Celestial Palace in order to wipe out Thuruht when Leia and Allana suddenly gasped in pain from the _Falcon_'s belly turret. They grabbed painfully at their waists, and because of this distraction on their part, the _Falcon_ took several hits from the clawcraft, rocking the ship every which way.

"Leia, Allana, what's wrong?" Han's voice asked through their headsets.

Neither of them could answer for a few moments as the _Falcon_ took even more hits.

"It's... it's Jaina!" Leia screamed. Another hit from one of the clawcraft gave the _Falcon_ another rough shake.

"What?!" Han and Allana both asked in shock.

"She's not dead!" Allana affirmed. "But... she's in great pain!" Then the ship shook again.

In another part of the galaxy, Ben, who was sitting in one of the seats of the passenger cabin of Captain Ford's yacht, similarly grasped at his waist in pain. Five-U, who happened to be there, scurried over to Ben's side, asking him what was wrong.

"Something happened to my cousin, Jaina!" he exclaimed.

On Shedu Maad, where Grand Master Luke Skywalker continued to sift through duty reports on his datapad, he also grasped in pain that Jaina had just suffered, dropping the datapad onto the floor.

In the medical frigate of the unknown system, Jaina, the lower half of her body now gone, painfully and agonizingly crawled along the deck of the medical frigate, her fried nerves along where her waist used to be screaming for her to pay all of her attention towards. But, as the Sword of the Jedi, even with the lower half of herself gone, she wouldn't give up for as long as she lived; not while Vestara was still on the loose, and potentially endangering Jag's life.

There were so many thoughts about her predicament that Jaina placed in the back of her mind; how badly mutilated and handicapped she now was, the thought of never being able to be intimate with Jag again, and her never being able to bear children. Her one hope, for now, was that she wouldn't be too late in stopping Vestara from killing her husband.

.

When Jag, who was waiting patiently in the pilot's seat for his wife to return, heard the footsteps behind him approach the cockpit, he smiled and stood up to turn around. "So did you get that Sith...?" He trailed off as he saw not Jaina standing at the entrance of the cockpit, but a slightly-scarred face that he was all too familiar with.

Jag then whipped out his blaster and aimed it at Vestara in anger, who only continued to stand there and smile, given that Jag didn't fire yet.

"What have you done to my wife, _Sith_?!" Jag exclaimed.

Vestara's smirk seemed to grow bigger. "She's not here, but I am," she said. "What do you think happened?"

Jag fumed at the implication of his wife's death as he looked into Vestara's eyes, his hands shaking. The Sith just stared back with the closest thing to what could be described as an apathetic grin.

Then, after several seconds, Jag let loose a flurry of bolts at point-blank range for Vestara.

But in less than a second, Vestara moved like a flash as she more-than quickly unhooked her lightsaber, activated it, and redirected all the bolts throughout the cockpit before slicing his weapon in half, leaving him completely defenseless as she impaled him through the heart.

Jag, seized in shock and pain from the lightsaber, first looked down at the blazing blade that killed him before looking up at Vestara. The Sith then gradually pulled the blade out of the man's chest, deactivated it, and casually hooked it back to her belt as she watched him first collapse to his knees, then he fell prone to the floor, his life now gone.

With leisurely pace, Vestara stepped past Jag's corpse, seated herself in the YT-2400's pilot seat, disembarked from the engine-less medical frigate, and moments later, she launched the ship into hyperspace.

.

It was then that Jaina felt what she least wanted to feel in the Force, and she allowed herself to collapse completely to the floor to revel in the misery provided by Jag's death.

Her deep, agonizing grief carried through the Force for all the Jedi, whom she knew, to feel. This drastically affected Leia and Allana's performances further on Reonoq, distracting them with the combined pain of Jaina's angry sadness with the agony she continued to suffer at having the lower half of her body removed from her. Leia and Allana themselves had felt Jag's death through the Force, and this only further distracted them.

"We're losing shields, what's going on?!" Han shouted.

"Jag's dead!" Allana cried. "And Jaina can't bare that pain!"

A final hit at the belly of the _Falcon_ then sent it spiraling out of Han's control as it corkscrewed down for the ground.

"Brace yourselves!" he called.

Moments later, the YT-1300 plowed into the ground, skidding across the dusty landscape for several meters as it lost its parts.

It was still skidding as it erupted into a flaming fireball.

The deaths of the Solos resonated through the Force, only adding to Jaina's sobbing and crying, while Ben and Luke could practically feel the fire that consumed Han and Leia. Five-U held Ben up from completely collapsing to the deck of the yacht's passenger cabin while Luke didn't even pick his datapad from off the floor.

Neither Luke or Ben managed to recover from the Solos' deaths before Jaina simply allowed herself to be consumed by all the pain she felt-physically, mentally, and emotionally-and then both halves of her body simply faded into the Force. Luke and Ben, in turn, simply allowed the tears they felt to flow freely from their faces.

On Reonoq, Allana, who only survived because the _Falcon_'s explosion burst the dorsal turret from the main body to crash elsewhere along the dusty landscape, also allowed herself to sob and cry at the loss of her grandparents, her cousin, and cousin-in-law, completely ignoring the broken bones and ruptured organs in her body that resulted from the crashing of the dorsal turret. The blood that spilled from her mouth began to pool with her tears at her feet.

She didn't even notice as the turret began to sink beneath the ground of Reonoq, with the Killiks beneath it, who took shelter from the bombardment of the Celestial Palace, pulling it down to help Allana, as they felt all of her pain through the Force via ThurThul.

_She will live_, the hive mind thought, _as one of us_.

Formbi, one of the most recent members of Thuruht, agreed with that sentiment as he watched that turret sink into Thuruht's underground caverns, his heart attack now a mere memory, having been quickly treated by the Thuruht's expert healers.

In the space above Reonoq, Admiral Ar'alani received reports of the _Millennium Falcon_'s downfall with a smirk. "Not even the Fels, much less the Solos, could conquer the Chiss Ascendancy by themselves," she contemplated with a satisfied tone. "Just as the Fels' luck ran out, so, too, did the Solos'."


	16. Chapter 16

Ben was still sitting in quiet contemplation and grief in the passenger cabin of Captain Ford's ship before it finally emerged from hyperspace. Ford himself entered the cabin and proclaimed, as if to a large audience, "All passengers, this is your captain speaking. We have finally arrived to our destination. Please buckle up and prepare for descent for the moon of Sojourn." When the captain noticed that Ben didn't respond, and noted from the data that was being implanted into his complex droid brain that the young Jedi was in a state of misery, he asked in a more personal tone, "What's wrong, Ben?"

"My aunt... my uncle... my cousin..." Ben trailed off for a few seconds before continuing with a choked sob. "They're all dead." Fresh tears began stinging his eyes.

"You have felt their deaths through the Force?" Ford asked.

Ben looked up to the droid captain and nodded. "Uh-huh."

"I see," Ford responded. "How long ago was this?"

"About half an hour ago, or an eternity, I think," Ben said. "I don't know. It feels that way anyway."

Normally, an organic sentient captain would be more understanding and compassionate over one's loss of friends and/or relatives. But if Ford was such a being, he would have simply rolled his eyes in annoyance of how beings such as humans could wallow in their sadness so much and let it cloud their judgment like this. Even his old Muun master, who was almost seventy-seven years dead by now, was a lot more practical and pragmatic in dealing with his emotions, especially when his sanctuary on Sojourn was destroyed by a nuclear blast thanks to the final king of Naboo, Ars Veruna.

Still, Ford had to admire that Ben had been so cooperative; normally, when it comes to humans, they wouldn't even be so responsive when they were mourning the loss of loved ones. Perhaps it had been Ben's time as a soldier during the Second Galactic Civil War and the recent crisis with the Lost Tribe of the Sith that had hardened him to the point of making him more tolerable for Ford to handle.

In all of his years as a free droid-ever since the fall of the Empire at the Battle of Endor, decades before the Klatooine slave riots allowed for droids such as Five-U to even masturbate-emotions still tended to elude him, and spending time with Five-U and their other associate, who was still on Sojourn, didn't help matters at all. Ford always liked to think of himself as a droid who was more Muunoid than humanoid, like his master, Magister Hego Damask, the only master he could ever claim to have even an iota of care for. He never did like that psychopathic, emotionally-driven Sith apprentice of his.

Hence, that was why Ford's next question for the grief-stricken Ben was, "Where is Five-U?"

"In the refresher," Ben answered.

"Let me guess," Ford said, still holding no sympathy for the young Jedi's current plight. "Before or since you felt your relatives' deaths in the Force?"

"He left me alone after I told him," Ben answered. "Haven't seen him since."

"Of course," Ford replied in a tone that could be called irritated as he walked to the back of the passenger cabin, where the refresher was located. He then knocked on the door. "We're here, and I don't care if you're done yet, I need you at the cockpit right now. And don't make any jokes about the word 'cockpit' in your current circumstance, okay?"

A human-like sigh was heard from the other end of the door. "Yes, captain. I'll meet you at the bridge soon."

"Oh, no, I'm staying out here until you come out, you got it?" Ford said.

This time, an irritated groan sounded from Five-U. "All right." Then the door opened and Five-U came out, closing the door behind him and walking alongside Ford as they approached the ship's cockpit. "I hope you don't mind the pornozines in the refresher, Ben," he said to the human as he walked past.

Ben still didn't respond as he hung his head in his continued misery.

Several minutes later, the ship landed and Ford and Five-U shut off the engines. They then walked back to the passenger cabin for Ben. "So, are you coming with us, Ben, or do you need further time to grieve?" Ford asked in a more understanding tone; he comprehended that even someone as emotionally hardened as Ben could prove as an liability untoward them if he weren't given time to himself.

Ben looked up to the droids. "No, I'll come."

"Good," Ford said as he and Five-U walked past the Jedi, who stood up and joined them to exit the ship.

A minute later, after Ben stepped off the landing ramp, he stopped and looked out upon a desolate landscape before him, as if the barren environment that his eyes showed him reflected the grief that he felt for Han, Leia, and Jaina.

"Well, come on, what are you standing there for?" Ford asked after he and Five-U stopped in their tracks and turned to him.

"What is this place?" Ben asked as he obeyed Ford and joined him and Five-U.

"As I said, this is the moon of Sojourn," Ford explained without turning back to Ben. "Obviously, though, you maybe wondering why it's so desolate, and why I'd bring you here. Well, it's because the entire moon suffered an orbital nuclear attack barely eighty years ago."

"Nuclear?" Ben asked. "Didn't think anyone would be so old-fashioned to use that even in such ancient times." His tone was wry and devoid of the grief that Ford knew he still felt.

"Feeling fine already?" Five-U asked Ben, as if in response to Ford's thoughts.

"It's my way of dealing with grief," Ben said, his tone more solemn. "I learned to get used to it after I lost several of my friends, and my mother."

Ford's opinion of his master's descendent was just slightly higher now.

"So where are we going?" Ben asked.

"Here," Ford pointed out as they began to approach a decrepit-looking building.

"You gonna tell me what it is, Captain Ford?" Ben asked, still approaching the building.

"A refuge for my master and your ancestor, Ben," Ford answered. "That was before it was nuked from orbit."

"Who'd wanna nuke a refuge for an ancestor of mine, and why?" Ben asked.

"Someone who was a political and financial rival of his and his apprentice," Ford said. "All your questions will be answered once we enter your ancestor's library."


	17. Chapter 17

Vestara sat despondent in the galley of the _Faux Harla_, idly munching away on some foodstuffs as the vessel continued its hours-long voyage through hyperspace for the One Sith homeworld of Korriban. One would think that she was feeling guilty for having killed Jagged and Jaina Solo Fel, but that wasn't the way of the Sith, not even one with the merest sliver of a conscious like Vestara herself had; her time with the Skywalkers, particularly with Ben, once made her believe that she could evolve beyond the Sith need for dominance and tyranny, after all. But no, her problem lay not in the fact that she just killed her still-loved ex-boyfriend's cousin and cousin-in-law, but the worry she felt over the fact that she had lost Ben to a greedy masturbating droid like Five-U.

That, in and of itself, was embarrassing, but it wasn't driving Vestara to her current state of misery. It was the fact that if she didn't find Ben before her Masters in the One Sith, like that prissy Darth Wyyrlok, became impatient and thought that she'd become a dangerous liability rather than an essential asset to their cause, any thought of ascending to the point of dominating Wyyrlok himself would be quashed along with her life.

As it was, right now, she could do nothing but wait as the _Faux Harla_ traveled through the blue of hyperspace, yet each and every second that she didn't have Ben only increased the chances that her life would end at the hands of the One Sith.

In between munching the food from the now late Fel couple, Vestara silently cursed herself. What was she thinking when she agreed to capture Ben? Oh, right, it was because she loved him; she wanted to see him again, have him all to herself again, and finally make him into a Sith in the way that she could never be a Jedi herself. Thanks to the latter point, it wasn't a hard sell to convince Wyyrlok that converting Ben to the ways of the dark side would greatly benefit the One Sith as a whole.

But now, because she trusted a droid that could somehow sexually stimulate itself and ejaculate artificial semen (she saw large pools of what smelled like actual semen in Five-U's quarters back aboard the medical frigate before he betrayed her), that droid took him while she slept, and for all Vestara knew, Five-U and Ben left the galaxy altogether. She compromised her entire role as a Sith Lord, a title that Ship himself conferred upon her after Abeloth was defeated for the last time, and she silently prayed to the Force that she didn't just throw her whole future, and her life, away. If she didn't find Ben soon...

The ship's proximity alarms chimed throughout its structure to let the galley-bound Vestara know that she had to get the _Harla_ out of hyperspace as soon as possible. Without hesitation, she leaped out of her seat and rushed for the cockpit. She pulled the lever down, and the bright, thick blue streaks of hyperspace resolved themselves into the star-studded blackness of realspace. However, what dominated the foreground of the _Harla_'s viewport was a desolate moon of a nearby planet.

And she could sense Ben's presence coming off it.

Vestara grinned evilly. She knew that this system was a hyperspace stop for Korriban, but she didn't know that she would find her target here. "I'm coming for you," she muttered.

.

After the entire surface of Reonoq had been raided by the invading Chiss flotilla, what with the smoking, blasted corpses of Killik bodies littering the planet and the Celestial Palace itself mirroring its inhabitants' permanent states, several shuttles landed all across the world, discharging Defense Force commandos, armed to the teeth with rifles and other standard armaments per troop. They all began heading to the underground sanctuaries of Reonoq through various openings and holes in the dusty grounds, one of them being a cavern leading from the interior of the Celestial Palace.

That had been several hours ago, Admiral Ar'alani thought worriedly, and since the commandos literally went underground, not a single soul within the fleet heard back from any of their ground forces.

Ar'alani was startled out of her thoughts from her command chair by one of the comm officers before her. "Admiral, an entire fleet of vessels are coming out of hyperspace from behind us!"

Before Ar'alani could even ask what kind of fleet, she instantly got her answer via the overhead sensors that now displayed a large fleet of modern-looking X-wings appearing from the flash of hyperspace. The Chiss admiral noted that none of the starfighters she could see bore any markings from the likes of the Galactic Alliance or any other known major galactic power that she was aware of.

"Ma'am, an incoming transmission from the other fleet!" one of the other comm officers announced. "Shall I patch it through."

"Do it," Ar'alani ordered promptly.

When communications were established, the voice of Grand Jedi Master Luke Skywalker asked, "Am I speaking to Admiral Ar'alani of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force?"

"Obviously, your reputation precedes you, Master Skywalker," Ar'alani responded in Basic after tapping a control on the right armrest of her command chair. "How may we help you?"

"You are aware, Admiral," Skywalker began, "that you have essentially committed an act of war against the entire Jedi Order with the deaths of Han and Leia Organa Solo. What have you to say in your defense of the Ascendancy?"

Ar'alani sighed more in annoyance than in worry about having to fight the Jedi along with exterminating the Thuruht nest; she wasn't entirely sure that the entire nest was wiped out, as she had a thought that there were Killiks still remaining underground and now fighting her commandos. But she shoved that in the back of her mind as she said, "We regret to inform you, Master Jedi, that their deaths were, in fact, necessary, as they had attempted to defend the Killik nest of the Thuruht, which had openly declared war on the Ascendancy recently."

"And you believe that it justifies what you have done?" Skywalker asked, anger creeping into his tone.

"Of course," Ar'alani answered in a noncommittal tone.

"Then I'll only give you this one chance, Admiral," Skywalker intoned. "Leave the Reo system now, or else."

Everyone on the bridge looked at Ar'alani expectantly, hoping she wouldn't wage war with the Jedi Order.

The admiral looked unfazed as she said, "Even if I were to comply willingly, Master Skywalker, I refuse to leave behind my commandos, who are still exploring the undergrounds of Reonoq as we speak."

"We will give you a standard Reonoq day," Skywalker said. "If your commandos are not out by then..."

"I didn't say I agreed to your terms, Skywalker," Ar'alani interrupted.

"Then you would wage war on the Jedi Order?" Skywalker asked.

The entire bridge went quiet, and once again, everyone there stared at their leader in expectation. She looked at all of them in turn, contemplating her decision. On the one hand, relations between the Ascendancy and the Jedi Order had been compromised with the deaths of the Solos, as Skywalker just pointed out. On the other hand, the Order had been known to defeat such large threats like the Yuuzhan Vong, Darth Caedus, the Sith, Abeloth, and even the Killiks themselves all those years ago.

Ar'alani was aware that while the Chiss's arrogance was not unfounded in many areas, she knew to never underestimate the Jedi.

Eventually, she came to her decision.

"Yes."

"Very well."

Communications were then shut off from the other end.


	18. Chapter 18

The then-visible Jedi StealthX fighters suddenly vanished into the star-studded blackness of space behind the Reo system's occupying Chiss force before they charged forward. Several Ascendancy vessels turned gradually but with haste to the starfighters that they knew were there and began firing blindly against the darkness, for it was all they could hope to accomplish against a virtually unseen Force-driven opponent.

The entire Jedi fleet managed to maneuver their ways around the incoming lasers, missiles, torpedoes, and other projectiles that the Chiss fired, and once they were within striking distance, they let loose their own volleys of fire. Explosions lit up the shields of the Ascendancy's capital ships, and the intensity with which the visible fleet spewed their projectiles increased tenfold. All the while, squadrons of their venerable clawcraft lurched from the capitals' hangar bays to engage the Jedi fleet.

As the clawcraft began taking hits and losses just after they left the safety of their hangars, the dwindling survivors matched the strategy of the capital vessels and began firing crazily into the blackness that protected the StealthXs from sight. One would thing that such a desperate move even by the Chiss Ascendancy, the civilization that spawned Grand Admiral Thrawn, a man proclaimed to be one of the greatest leaders the galaxy had ever known, if not _the_ greatest, was an indication that they had no chance of scoring a graze against one of the StealthXs' hulls.

But eventually, the firing from the Ascendancy became so intense that explosions began blossoming, apparently from the darkness of space, as an indication that the blind shooting on the Chiss's part began to take effect against the StealthXs. That was when Luke Skywalker became worried.

He pulled hard and fast against the stick of his StealthX, hurriedly moving here and there to dodge the lasers, missiles, and torps that the Ascendancy sent his way, and he had to ignore the pangs in the Force that indicated the Jedi who were dying out here lest he join them as their inarguable greatest loss today. It didn't help at all that he had to add even more minor pangs as he and the Jedi who still had a chance of surviving were blasting away clawcraft left and right to increase their odds of making out alive.

"Kyp! Octa!" Luke shouted into his fighter's activated comm system. "Did you and your Knights manage to make it past the blockade yet?" The Grand Master didn't worry about anyone from the Chiss side of the battle picking up on their communications, since it had been especially encrypted with recent tech that the Ascendancy couldn't possibly know about yet.

"Yeah, we all made it past 'em!" Kyp reported. "We're headed for Reonoq as we speak!"

"Excellent," Luke replied. "Skywalker out." He then cut the comm and focused the rest of his energy in the battle.

As the majority of the StealthX fleet continued to engage the wild-firing Chiss Ascendancy, six of the near-invisible fighters rocketed for the planet that had been the reason of debate between the Ascendancy and the Killik nest of Thuruht. Jedi Masters Kyp Durron, Octa Ramis, and four twenty-something Knights-female Muun Ohga Merkaw, Bith brothers Pom and Dom Cella, and female Gungun Dressi Binks-went unnoticed by the occupied occupying force as they set out to accomplish their mission.

Bare minutes after they soared through the atmosphere, the Jedi team touched down near the destroyed Celestial Palace, where the ruined hulk of the _Millennium Falcon_ lay in ruins as well. In various directions all around, Chiss shuttles sat, unoccupied, as if waiting for their blue-skinned masters to return from Reonoq's undergrounds and leave this planetary wasteland.

Kyp, Octa, and the Knights accompanying them disembarked from their starfighters and looked upon the dead _Falcon_ with a mix of grief and despair.

"Moi moi, is dada _Millennium Falcon_?" Dressi Binks said, her high-pitched mirroring the entire group's astonishment.

"Yes, it is, Dressi," Kyp answered without turning away from the site. His tone was trance-like. "Knights, you are all looking upon what was once practically a living legend unto herself; a legend responsible for so much in this galaxy, for so many years." Kyp's tone nearly broke under the sadness and mourning he still felt for Han, Leia, and Jaina's deaths, given how close he was to Jaina and Han in particular in the past.

"I think a moment of silence is necessary," Octa said.

They all agreed without saying a word, and bowed their heads in honor and respect for the late _Millennium Falcon_.

"Now we should continue our mission," Octa stated, holding back the emotions she still felt. She looked back Ohga, the Cella brothers, and Dressi. "Remember, Knights, our mission is possibly the most important in the fleet. Saving Allana Solo's life is important not only for the Order, but for the galaxy."

"Indeed," Ohga Merkaw said. "As foreseen by Master Skywalker himself, her death would unbalance the galaxy to total darkness." The Muun then changed the subject. "Masters, do you believe we can head underground via the Celestial Palace up ahead?" She pointed in the direction of the palace.

"Good place to start," Kyp commented.

"Agreed," Octa said. "So let's go."

As the Jedi began trotting to the ruined Celestial Palace, Pom Cella commented to his brother, "The site of the _Millennium Falcon_ would make for beautiful music, Dom."

"Yes, it would, Pom," Dom replied. "I await for when we return to Shedu Maad so we can conduct our great memorial symphony for the Solos."

No more words were spoken among the team as they entered the palace and began searching through it in order to get underground. Once they found a hole in the floor at the back of the palace, the Jedi entered it single-file-Kyp first, Octa second, Ohga third, Dom and Pom fourth and fifth respectively, and Dressi was last-and they prepared to face the challenges that awaited them.


	19. Chapter 19

While it was certainly interesting to have been exploring a home away from home of one of his ancestors, Ben knew that there was no further time to explore who Hego Damask was once he sensed Vestara Khai's presence in the system. He had just told Captain Ford and Five-U to stay put in the bunker of Damask as he rushed outside to confront his ex-girlfriend, his lightsaber out and blazing in his hands.

His back at the entrance to the bunker, Ben was facing the _Faux Harla_ with its landing ramp lowered to the ground. Vestara was just stepping off of it in a very leisurely manner. When she was finally off the ship, she just looked to Ben wryly, as if she were unimpressed with the front that he intended to put up.

"You killed Jaina and Jag, didn't you?" he growled angrily.

"Sorry about that," Vestara replied sarcastically. "But it was either me or them. And I chose me."

"Just as you always did," he responded harshly.

"And what's so wrong about that?" Vestara asked. "Personally, I like being a smart coward rather than a dumb hero. It keeps me alive a lot longer."

"If you wanna stay alive longer, then you'll surrender yourself to me and I take you in for all the crimes you committed, Khai," Ben said.

Vestara smirked. "I didn't say I was that cowardly," she said before whipping out and igniting her own blade. "I don't intend to kill you, so I'll go easy on you."

"Don't expect the same from me," Ben said before charging forward.

.

When Kyp, Octa, and the four Knights entered the underground caverns with their lightsabers blazing, they all stopped abruptly at the sites of several broken, bloody Chiss bodies littering the ground in front, behind, and to the sides of them. Some of the Chiss even had their skin missing in various places, leaving only the dull red of their eyes to allow for a passerby to identify them as Chiss.

No wonder the blockade wasn't hearing back from their soldiers within Reonoq's undergrounds.

In spite of her Jedi training, Dressi screamed out loud and flailed her arms in reaction to these grizzly sites. Ohga quickly calmed her down by placing an arm on the Gungun's arm. "Relax," Ohga stated in a hushed tone.

"Oh, moi moi, thanks," Dressi said. "I get really nervous when I see things like this."

"I understand, Dressi," Ohga nodded.

"Why do you not rely on your own training to calm yourself down, Jedi Binks?" Octa asked.

"It runs in my family," Dressi said. "I can't help it."

"Well, you better learn how to," Kyp interjected. "Otherwise, you won't last long down here." His tone was completely serious.

Dressi swallowed hard at this.

"We need to split into two teams," Octa declared. "Kyp, you take the Cella brothers and go that way." She pointed ahead. "I take the rest and go this way. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Kyp responded before the Bith Knights began following his lead.

"Ooh, meessa have a bad feeling abouta this," Dressi said as she turned with Octa and Ohga down the opposite direction from Kyp and the Bith.

"No argument there," Octa said, not taking her eyes off the dark path before her.

On the opposite side of the cavern, Kyp and the Cella brothers turned left at the winding corner and continued to find several more bloodied and bleeding Chiss commando corpses riddling the pathway before them. Other than that, there was nothing else for several meters before a rightward corner would no doubt lead to more nowhere, Kyp thought. Regardless, even with the absence of a visible threat from sight, sound, or the Force, Kyp and the Bith Knights beside and behind him continued to advance with caution, stepping warily past the corpses that were already stinking of decomposition.

Halfway through the corpse-filled cavern, Kyp's danger sense flared up like a nova. But before either he or the Cella brothers could react, Killiks suddenly popped out of the ground, the ceiling, and the sides of the cavern like pimples on an adolescent human. They immediately swarmed the three Jedi before they had a chance to defend themselves with their lightsabers. Kyp and the Cella brothers fell to the dusty ground screaming in agony as the Killiks began chewing on their flesh, the Jedi's lightsabers scuttling away from their grasps as they were being devoured.

Naturally, the sounds of the male members of the team were heard by the females, who stopped dead in their tracks and quickly whirled away from the path they were taking. They then sprinted down the way that Kyp, Pom, and Dom took, but before they could turn the corner that they followed, Octa, Ohga, and Dressi were instantly set upon by more Killiks that popped out of the walls, ceiling, and ground. And like the male members of the team, neither of the females had any time to defend themselves as they were set upon by the Thuruht members, and their lightsabers rolled from their hands and out of reach.

Pom and Dom were the first ones to go, given that their Bith flesh was very easy to pierce through. Their screams died along with them as their blood flowed from their now-fleshless bodies. Ohga, her skin similarly as sensitive, also died fairly quickly. Dressi was the last one to die, and had one been so desensitized to violence in general, one would be glad to hear the Gungun's rather annoying screams put to an end along with her life.

Fortunately, since their skin was the most durable among them, Kyp and Octa were able to wrestle past a few of the Killiks eating them and each used the Force to recall their lightsaber to one of their hands. Upon activation, they didn't hesitate as they began hacking through Thuruht bodies. The cavern's litter of bodies now grew with Killik remains to add to the corpses of Chiss, Bith, Muun, and Gungun. After half a minute, Kyp and Octa were finally free, but they had to muster what remained of their physical strength and what remained of their strength in the Force to disallow the pain from consuming them like the Killiks were just doing.

Octa was the first to push herself up to her feet, since she was being eaten for less time than Kyp. She staggered over to his downed form, the both of them moaning and groaning from the pain they just suffered and the flesh they lost. While Octa had lost flesh on her left thigh, right knee, both her biceps, combined with losing an earlobe and a portion of her right cheek was gone, Kyp didn't look like he could get up, since his legs were entirely dry bone, and gaping wounds riddled his arms. Octa mentally remarked how Kyp could keep quiet after all this; he must've been really strong in the Force.

"Leave me here, Octa," Kyp croaked, restraining himself from screaming. "You have to get Allana. The future of the galaxy depends on it."

"Neither of us are in any good shape to continue this mission," Octa countered as she slowly and painfully bent down to haul Kyp up on her shoulders. Standing back up was probably more painful, but Octa wouldn't let it get to her. "We have to abort, Kyp. I can try this again some other time." Even Kyp knew it was obvious that this was his very last mission ever.

Octa then turned back to where they came from and began to painfully shuffle toward the stairs that led back up to the ruins of the Celestial Palace. Each step up, Octa had to further suppress the pain that burned in her legs because of the sections of skin that were missing. But that still didn't stop her from using her free hand to reach into her pocket and take out her comm unit.

"Master Skywalker," she said after activating her comm.

"Go ahead, Master Ramis," Luke replied.

"Kyp and I have to abort the mission," she said. "We can't go on; we're in need of serious medical attention."

"What about the Knights with you?" Luke asked.

"They're dead," Octa said.

"Then this has all been for nothing," Luke said in a defeated tone. "All right, we'll send down an escort to retrieve you and Kyp, Master Ramis. Skywalker out."


	20. Chapter 20

"Should we help him, Captain?" Five-U asked Ford as they watched Ben and Vestara duel outside Hego Damask's bunker.

"I don't think we can," Ford replied simply. "If anything, we'll probably make things worse. Better to just watch and hope that Ben wins."

"And if the Sith wins?" Five-U asked nervously. "We'll have no way to get out of here before she slices us into spare parts!"

"Good thing Ben isn't going to lose then," Ford countered confidently.

"Well, I wish I had your confidence," was all Five-U said as he and the captain continued to watch the duel.

Indeed, one would think that Five-U's doubt would be unwarranted, as the viciousness of Ben's attacks drove Vestara back as she desperately fought to defend herself from being struck down; yet, even in her desperation to defend herself, she couldn't help but note a tinge of yellow coloring Ben's eyes. Inwardly, she smiled at this.

In his mind, Ben completely forgot all that his Jedi training taught him over the years of fighting the temptations that the dark side of the Force brought about. All he wanted to do was kill Vestara and avenge Jaina and Jag's losses. Never would it have ever crossed his mind that he would no doubt end up like his late cousin, Jacen, were he to successfully end his ex-girlfriend's life.

But for all the power he poured into his strikes against Vestara, there was a tradeoff with Ben's ability to fight, as his giving-in to his anger and hatred to his former love, for what she did to Jaina and Jag, was eroding his concentration. This allowed the Sith to take advantage of Ben's overall sloppiness from his strikes as she finally found the opportunity to stand her ground and parry his blade off to the side before elbowing him in the nose. The Jedi stumbled back from the attack, and before he could recover, Vestara launched a kick into his sternum that sent him flying back to the ground.

But Ben used his free hand to send out a Force wave that also knocked Vestara back to the ground, allowing himself ample time to leap to his feet and rush in to finish off his ex-girlfriend. However, he only managed to cut a deep furrow where her chest once was, as she had already rolled back over her shoulder and ended up in a crouch. She then blocked several more slashes intended to end her life before she allowed herself to collapse to her buttocks and swung out a leg to trip the Jedi backward.

The latter, though, saw the attack coming, so he flipped back a few meters and landed on his feet like a sand panther. This gave Vestara the precious few seconds she needed to leap to her feet and quickly block several incoming lightning bolts with her lightsaber. She weathered the storm of the Force-electricity before Ben cut it out and decided to rush her. But Vestara wasn't overwhelmed, as she was able to meet his next incoming strikes like the practiced Sith Lord she was. They traded several more strikes before she managed to spin through his defenses and launched a solid uppercut beneath his jaw. He fell to the ground again, but didn't lose momentum in combat as he kicked out both feet into Vestara's kneecaps.

The Sith screamed in pain as she collapsed toward Ben. And her agony only piled up when she fell straight on top of the blue blade that pierced her torso; only this time, she didn't seem to muster any strength to wail, as she felt that strength steadily erode into nothingness thanks to the burning heat of Ben's blade.

She was, however, able to look her ex-boyfriend straight in the eyes and smiled; a genuine, warm smile, not a malicious one that Sith were known for. Yet her dying words couldn't be more Sith.

"I'm glad... that I was finally... able to... get you to... embrace... the dark... Ben."

And when he knew that his former love was gone, leaving behind only the empty shell of her corpse still impaled on his blade, Ben knew, with a heavy heart, that he had revoked any claims of being a Jedi.

.

Luke streaked away from an exploding clawcraft he just destroyed when he suddenly felt a powerful surge in his heart. He initially feared that he was suffering from cardiac arrest for a moment, with a thought in the back of his mind telling him that dying from a heart attack in the middle of a space battle would be an embarrassing and demoralizing way for the Jedi Grand Master to die from. But after the moment came to pass, and the feeling was gone, Luke was able to determine what he just felt, even with a battle still raging around him.

Ben.

He knew he had just lost his boy.

But not to death. It was to something much, much worse.

.

He couldn't believe what he just did. After all these years, of avoiding the temptations that his late cousin Jacen tried so hard to force him to give in to, Ben had finally fallen to the dark side of the Force when he murdered Vestara. He didn't do it to protect himself, as Vestara had intended to take him alive; sure, she intended to capture him, but he was the one who was aggressive in the duel, not her. He was the one who had been coerced, had been goaded, into fighting her; she was merely protecting herself, even if she had ulterior motives for doing so. And he had done it for Jaina and Jag.

He couldn't deny it. He felt it to his bones. He had immersed himself of the dark side, and he couldn't forgive himself. He couldn't forgive himself, not because of what he did to his ex-girlfriend, but because he fell for one of the oldest Sith tricks in the book; he gave in to the passionate loathing he felt for the one he once loved, and he used it to end her life.

The worst part of it all? She gave him her blessing for using the dark side. Her _blessing_! Ben couldn't couldn't feel more shame for himself even if he tried.

Even if he could be pardoned and redeemed for his murder of Vestara, even if it came from his own father, he would know that all of his effort to stray away from Darth Caedus's footsteps had been all for naught, and that would haunt him to the end of his life. No matter what he could accomplish from this point on, the fact that his late Master's intentions of turning him dark would forever taint Ben's soul.

.

"You owe me a hundred credits," Ford said to Five-U as Ben deactivated his lightsaber and shoved Vestara's corpse off to the side.

"But you pay me," Five-U pointed out. "And I didn't even know we even had a bet!"

"I'll take my currency in pornozines," Ford concluded, ignoring Five-U's last statement.

Five-U gasped in shock as he looked to his captain. "Are you serious?!"

"You owe me a debt, Five-U," Ford countered as he met his first mate's gaze. "That's for doubting our valiant Jedi Knight."

Five-U sighed in defeat. "But what are you going to do with the pornozines?"

"What do you think?" Ford replied vaguely as Ben rejoined the droids.

"So, are we continuing with the tour?" Ben interjected, his tone now having a dark edge.

Ford and Five-U looked at him. "Of course. If you'll follow us."

The captain led the way back into the bunker. As they traveled back down the halls of Hego Damask's home away from home, Five-U came to Ben's side and asked, "Hey, man, are you okay?"

"As okay as I'll ever be at this point," Ben answered, his tone still dark.

"You've gone to the dark side, haven't you?" Ford asked, not turning around as he continued leading Ben and Five-U down the brown, featureless hall.

"It's that obvious, huh?" Ben asked.

"I've been around dark siders long enough to know their general attitudes," Ford said. "Of course, I think your turn to the dark just made it a little bit more convenient to accept your ancestry."

"What, was this Muun Hego Damask also a dark sider?" Ben asked with a snort.

"Actually, he was," Ford answered, bringing out widened eyes as a reaction from Ben. "One of the greatest dark siders ever. One of the most powerful Sith." Ford turned his head back as he kept on walking. "He even trained Palpatine."

His turn to the dark side temporarily forgotten, Ben asked, "Okay, that's a bit surprising. But that still doesn't tell me how he could be an ancestor of mine if we're not even biologically compatible."

"Like I said, once we get to the library, I'll show you," Ford said.


	21. Chapter 21

Octa, having left the underground caverns of the Celestial Palace, was now painfully stumbling through the ruins of the ancient Killik building with a dying Kyp still on her shoulders; considering the wounds they suffered from nearly ending up as chow for Thuruht members, they both needed severe medical attention, especially Kyp, whose wounds would prove fatal if not given treated sufficiently in the proper amount of time. But at least neither of them had to fly their StealthXs or of the starfighters left over from the now-dead Jedi Knights who came with them; that would be left to the reinforcements who were coming down to pick them up and tow their vessels back into space.

However, upon seeing the exit of the destroyed palace before her, an adult, male Cerean, who Octa recognized was Jedi Marr Id-Shael, dropped in from out of nowhere and faced her. He made no further moves, not even reaching for the lightsaber hooked on his belt, before he said, "Surrender, Master Ramis, and we may tend to your and Master Durron's wounds." His voice was predictably stilted and stiff, typically characteristic to a being of a collective consciousness.

Octa snorted in response. "In exchange for submitting the both of us to your hive mind? I don't think so."

"You really have no choice," Idi-Shael droned. "Even if you can escape our grasp, neither of you will be able to return to any suitable medical facility among the Jedi to save your lives in time. And you are in no condition to fight. Please, we beg of you for your sake, turn yourselves over."

"I'd rather die," Octa replied without hesitation. "And I know Master Durron would, too. There's no way we'd contribute our own knowledge and skills over to the Killiks in exchange for our lives."

Idi-Shael sighed in defeat. "Then you leave us no choice." He casually unhooked and activated his purple-bladed lightsaber and simply strolled toward Octa, as if he was only going to shake her hand instead of murder her and Kyp.

Predictably, Octa began moving back and away, struggling to hold Kyp up on her shoulders, from the approaching Idi-Shael, who didn't even quicken his pace. "Even if you kill us, you still have to contend with the Jedi who are picking up Kyp and I."

"We're aware of them, Master Ramis," Idi-Shael said. "And we have no reason to contend with them."

.

As before, six StealthXs, two of which were piloted by Jedi Masters Corran Horn and Kyle Katarn, flew through the atmosphere of Reonoq and soared for the remnants of the Celestial Palace, where the starfighters of the previous Jedi team had landed. In less than a minute, they neared the resting StealthXs and each currently-flying vessel simultaneously fired out a tow cable toward their downed counterparts, picking them up immediately.

The Killiks who had just burrowed themselves back through the sandy earth of Reonoq went unnoticed by any of the Jedi.

Not only that, but all of those Jedi thought that they felt, through the Force, that Kyp and Octa were already in their respective StealthXs. And to top it all, they also failed to see the bombs stuck to the bottoms of the towed starfighters.

Those bombs not only blew up the StealthXs that they were attached to, but they also sent, in their fiery deaths, electrical charges that traveled up the cables that led to the StealthXs that were just carrying them. All of the Jedi who were piloting were too distracted by the sudden burst of momentum caused by the explosions that sent all of them off course, which was why they didn't have time to react from what their danger senses told them in the mere two seconds they were abuzz.

It took twice that time for those electrical charges to travel up those cables to blow those StealthXs up.

.

Octa suddenly tripped back from the feeling that resulted from the deaths of two of her fellow Masters, Corran and Kyle, along with four other Knights within Reonoq's atmosphere. She collapsed on top of Kyp, who lost all the control that he could muster to calm the pain he was in to give a primal shout of pain that reverberated powerfully through the Force, akin to the wave of pain that Jaina Solo Fel felt upon her own death.

Yet that shout of agony did not even slow Idi-Shael down for a second. He continued to approach the distracted Masters and, without hesitation, plunged his lightsaber through Octa's torso. He then pulled his blazing blade out to put Kyp out of his misery by decapitating him.

But it wasn't the wave of death brought upon by Octa and Kyp's deaths that staggered Idi-Shael away from their maimed corpses.

.

After all he went through - the death of his wife half a decade ago, Kenth Hamner's loss a little more than a year ago, the more recent deaths of his family in the Solos, Ben's turn to the dark side - it was the combined pain brought upon by four of his subordinate Masters' deaths that simply put too much on Grand Master Luke Skywalker. Granted, it would be something that he could handle, given all that he had suffered before, but in the heat of space combat, there was no way he could properly delegate his mind away from minding the deaths of four of his friends and not end up crashing into the shielded hull of a Chiss Star Destroyer.

After all these years, after fighting in some of the greatest wars that the galaxy had ever seen, losing so many comrades, friends, and family, Luke Skywalker thought, in his final moments, that his earlier fear in the battle - that of dying of a heart attack - was coming true as his vessel spun wildly out of his nonexistent control; undergoing the pressure and pain in his being would cause that in even the most experienced of Jedi, who flailed around like an idiot in his cockpit. A Sith would find this to be an amusing close to the life of a Jedi Grand Master.

In the end, Luke met his demise as his near-invisible StealthX soundlessly hit and exploded against the shields of Admiral Ar'alani's flagship, and was no more.

The resultant shock wave that Luke left in his wake resounded so powerfully through the Force that it halted the entire battle in the Reo system, psychically attacking even the non-Force-sensitive Chiss. Needless to say, many more Jedi Knights and Chiss pilots died from uncontrollable crashes and projectiles that either weren't meant for them or were projectiles that they could have otherwise easily avoided.

But no more Jedi Masters died. It was as if the Force itself would not allow for the complete downfall of the Jedi Order.

Utter silence permeated the battlefield that was the Reo system, as the remaining Jedi could do nothing more but contemplate the loss of not only four regular Masters in the span of moments, but also the unexpected death of the most powerful of them, their very own Grand Master. The Chiss were confused and baffled at what just happened, for they could not fathom the enormity of what transpired; and even when many of them were ready to engage in battle, they made not a single move for the sake of their fellows, and for curiosity as to why the Jedi didn't continue to fight on for themselves.

Admiral Ar'alani was one of the relatively few Chiss who didn't follow up from the event of Luke Skywalker's death as she remained silent.

"Admiral," one of her subordinates at one of the comm piped in as the rest of the bridge remained silent. "Shall we continue firing?"

Ar'alani looked to the Chiss who asked her that question. "I don't believe that will be necessary," she said.

The male Chiss raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Why not?"

"Because the Jedi have just suffered a blow that I doubt they can recover from," she replied as she turned back to the viewport where, moments earlier, an intense battle had been raging. "Obliterating what remains would be unnecessary."

"Then... what's our next course of action?" the other Chiss inquired.

It took a while for Ar'alani to respond before she turned back to her subordinate and said, "Ensure the elimination of the Killiks."

.

"Master Sebatyne," Master Barratk'l said sullenly over the Barabel Jedi's comm. "What do we do now?"

"We have lost, Barratk'l," Saba answered, her tone conveying her species' typical practicality even with the loss of one of her own. But even with her tone, Saba could not hide the fact in her voice that she had not felt any loss so profound in her life, even when her Master Eelysa died during the Yuuzhan Vong War, or even when Bela and Krasov Hara died during the Mission to Myrkr within that very same war. Kenth Hamner's loss at her own hands also paled in comparison to what just occurred.

"We must return back to Shedu Maad now," Saba concluded.

"We hear you... Grand Master Sebatyne," Barratk'l said.

Saba suppressed a growl. She hated the sound of that, and never thought that she would ever take up the title again in her life; it was bad enough that the first time around, it had been forced upon her when she killed Kenth Hamner. Now, with Luke Skywalker's devastating loss, there was no choice for the Jedi but to run home with their tails tucked between their legs.

And so, as the near-unseen StealthXs that remained in the battle turned to leave the Reo system via hyperspace, nothing stopped the remaining Chiss Ascendancy vessels that turned back to Reonoq to first find out what happened to the troops they sent down and then exterminate the Killiks there.

.

As Ben, Captain Ford, and Five-U approached Hego Damask's library, Ben collapsed to his knees, clutching at his chest in pain before he simply flopped to the floor on his back, his face completely emotionless and expressionless now.

Ford and Five-U both looked at each other in silent askance before returning their attention to the downed Jedi Knight at their feet. Five-U bent down and shook Ben's shoulder. "Hey, Ben, you okay?" Even to humans, who didn't have complex sensor readings that could tell if a being was living or dead, it was obvious that Ben was still alive given that he was still breathing regularly.

"My dad..." Ben said in a completely emotionless, blank voice. "My dad... My dad... He... He's... He's gone."

Again, Ford and Five-U looked at each other. Given all they knew of Ben - having been born during the Yuuzhan Vong War, not knowing his parents while he was in Shelter, suppressing his Force abilities because of Abeloth, being trained early in his life to kill as a member of the Galactic Alliance Guard, suffering on Ziost to summon the Sith Meditation Sphere known as Ship, being betrayed by his late cousin who then killed his mother, realizing that he couldn't save his cousin from the dark side, realizing that he could never have a girlfriend who was born a Sith, being raped by said ex-girlfriend, killing her and turning to the dark side, and losing everyone in his family except for Allana Djo Solo - there was only one conclusion that Ford could make from Ben's emotionless state.

"His life really sucks."


	22. Chapter 22

Darth Krayt sat on his prestigious throne as he reveled in the feeling that Luke Skywalker's death brought to the Force.

It was a moment of pure ecstasy for him, untainted by hope or the courage to fight on from those who belonged to Skywalker's Jedi. To Krayt, it was a sign that the One Sith were ready to take over the galaxy. It was just as he expected when he decided to help the Killiks on Reonoq by helping them gather up more members and prevent their loss of ThurThul by the initial Jedi task force. Krayt also believed that it was the Force that allowed him to give the nest of Thuruht six prototypes for a special bomb that the One Sith's scientists had developed; one that could trick a Force-sensitive, such as a Jedi, into believing that one of their own was stranded within the cockpit of a derelict vessel by sending out waves through the Force that would make those Jedi believe that their fellows were in those ships.

Such complex engineering, combined with aspects from the Force, really paid off in leading to Luke Skywalker's death, Krayt thought smugly.

Just as the sensation of Skywalker's passing came to an end, however, a new sensation just as powerful as the last erupted to engulf Krayt's inner being.

But it was one that he now dreaded deeply.

.

Ford and Five-U gently led Ben, who slouched in abject misery, down towards the library that had belonged to Hego Damask. Upon stepping up to the door, Ford unlocked it with a keycard and continued on in with his companions.

"You know, I'm curious, Captain," Five-U said as the three of them began traveling through the expansive library, "you never did mention how this library managed to survive a nuclear blast if it wasn't encased in a bunker not meant to withstand such an attack."

"You didn't think to ask this before?" Ford asked.

"The thought simply never occurred to me before," Five-U answered.

"Well, it is quite obvious what you think most of the time," Ford remarked.

"A jab at my love for porn?" Five-U asked.

"Yes," Ford answered. "But anyway, the thing is, this library didn't survive that nuclear blast, Five-U. What you see around you are actually copies of the very same books, holocomms, and even scrolls that Magister Damask owned in his lifetime; I took to recording those that didn't have any copies in the event that something like this would occur."

Five-U whistled as he regarded the whole library. "So why keep 'em?"

"Knowledge is a powerful thing, something that could equal in power to the Force, either light or dark," Ford said. "And while Magister Damask was never as intelligent as I was, I would be remiss to say that he never believed that it held any worth."

"So, in essence, these are keepsakes from your time serving this guy," Five-U concluded.

"In essence, yes," Ford replied.

"So where are going then?" Five-U asked. "I'm not sure our friend here is much interested in the library right now." He indicated Ben with a jerk of his head, who showed no signs of even registering the conversation occurring between the droids.

"His interest is irrelevant," Ford replied. "All we need is his cooperation."

"You think it's guaranteed when he's like this?" Five-U inquired.

"It won't be difficult even for someone in Ben's emotional state," Ford said. "I was originally going to trick him when he was still a light sider, but now that he turned to the dark side for killing that Sith ex-girlfriend of his out there, and since he doesn't really care either way now, I think this will be easier than expected."

"What will be?" Five-U asked.

"You can stop asking, my friend, for here we are," Ford said as they stopped before a counter where a standard Sith holocron rested.

"Ben, if you would please activate the holocron?" Ford asked the young Jedi.

Ben looked briefly at Ford with his emotionally-weary expression before looking back down on the holocron and reaching out to it. But before his hand could rest on top of it, he flinched when the cube began glowing a dark blue. In spite of his reaction, though, Ben regarded the holocron with that same, downtrodden look.

Then the glowing blue from the holocron suddenly rushed from its source and enveloped Ben from head-to-toe completely. He screamed in agony, knocking him out of his depression for only a moment, before he collapsed to the ground, out of Ford and Five-U's grasps. The two droids regarded their fallen charge with obvious interest even on their otherwise expressionless faces.

"Can I ask a question?" Five-U asked, not taking his sight off of Ben as he continued to writhe on the floor in the dark blue glow.

"You just asked one, idiot," Ford said, also not taking his gaze away from Ben.

"Sorry, you just told me that I could stop asking, is all," Five-U replied. "But what's going on?"

"I think you're about to find out," Ford said as the glow vanished from Ben's form.

The young Jedi laid there for a few moments, eyes closed, before they opened up with a dark red-and-yellow hue.

.

Once again, as if one Force-changing moment in a day wasn't enough, Saba felt another jolt of a terrible Force sensation encompass her being as her StealthX continued to fly with the remnants of the Jedi squadron through hyperspace back to Shedu Maad.

_What happened now?_ she wondered.

.

The body that had once belonged to Ben Skywalker stood up, his eyes still glowing red and yellow, as he regarded Ford and Five-U.

"One-One-Four-Dee," Ben said in a voice that was not his own. "After all these decades, you have finally succeeded in your mission."

Ford then bowed as if Ben were a king. He then briefly looked back up to Five-U, who only continued standing at his full height as he stared at their human accomplice. The droid captain elbowed his subordinate, who was getting a brief, curious stare from Ben, and Five-U hastily bowed before the human likewise.

"I live to serve you, and only you," Ford said, "Darth Plagueis."

.

Admiral Ar'alani regarded the sensors showing the descending Chiss shuttles that would recover their lost brethren from beneath the caverns of Reonoq and also retrieve the shuttles of the initial landing party. From her seat on the bridge of her capital vessel, she was already regarding the situation intently.

But when the shuttles that had now entered the planet's atmosphere began falling to the surface of Reonoq like rocks, Ar'alani's alertness shot up to an eleven in an instant.

She motioned for one of her subordinates at the comms to hail the pilots of those descending shuttles before her demand was cut off in a strangled gasp. She grabbed at her throat, just as everyone else on the bridge of her ship did. In moments, they all collapsed to the deck as an increasing pressure within their necks was quickly depriving them of precious air.

Before any of them could actually die of oxygen-deprivation, all of their heads exploded into gory messes that decorated the entire bridge from ceiling to deck. The same could be said of the bridges of the other capital ships in the fleet, as well as any other area in any other ship in the Ascendancy armada present in the Reo system.

It was no wonder why the vessels of the second landing party were falling so rapidly, nor why they were stopped from exploding against certain areas where the previous shuttles had landed. It was as if those shuttles that already landed were spared for others to pilot.

One would not be remiss to say that these events were all guided by a powerful hand.

Deep in the underground caverns of Reonoq, Allana Djo Solo, now ThurSolo, queen of Thuruht, sat deep in concentration with the rest of her Killik brethren, as well as their Joiner counterparts, as they used the Force to coordinate a pent-up attack that eliminated their Ascendancy foes in one swift movement. The former rulers of this nest, ThurThul and Thuruht's own Killik queen, had joined this attack without complaint to the loss of their leadership, for it was the will of Thuruht; no individuality between them was expressed anyway.

Now Thuruht had vessels with which they could use to leave the Reo system.

Now Thuruht had a way to expand through the galaxy.

"Now we have a way to rule," they all said in their unified drone, all at the lead of their new, true queen.

A queen once believed to lead the Jedi.

.

Darth Wyyrlok wryly wondered if powerful changes through the Force would become a regular event at this point, as Darth Krayt, after issuing a command to Wyyrlok to dispatch a team of Sith to a remote moon known as Sojourn, doubled over in his throne in pain again; Krayt had informed him of Luke Skywalker's death and this unknown sensation that had come from Sojourn upon his entrance to the throne room prior to this new feeling from the Force.

"What troubles you, My Lord?" Wyyrlok asked worriedly, in spite of his aloof thoughts before.

"Not only do we have a new power that threatens my authority, Wyyrlok, but now we have two," Krayt said in a disturbed tone.

"From where?" Wyyrlok asked.

Krayt hesitated. "Reonoq."

.

After Ford introduced Five-U to Darth Plagueis, the Sith, now in possession of Ben Skywalker's body, doubled over in pain.

"What now?" Five-U asked in an irritated tone as he stood up from his bow while Ford rushed to Plagueis's side. "I swear, it's a wonder how this guy hasn't died from over-stress at this point."

"What is it, Master?" Ford asked, ignoring Five-U.

"A new power arises just as I do," Plagueis answered as he stood up from the shock he endured. He looked over to Ford. "We must depart immediately. You may tell me about this form that I inhabit later, Four-Dee." He moved for the exit of the library.

"Where are we going, Master?" Ford asked as he and Five-U followed along.

"Anywhere but here," Plagueis said.


	23. Chapter 23

As one, all of the Chiss shuttles of Reonoq's initial landing party rose for the planet's skies, rocketing for the now-vacant vessels that their dead Ascendancy opponents left. A few minutes later, after the Killiks boarded the capitals and other vessels in the defeated fleet, they split into two grand teams; the first unified team would stay aboard the vessels while the other team take the shuttles back down to Reonoq to ferry up more Killiks, who all burrowed their ways from the planet's underground.

Nearly half an hour of efficient action later, ThurSolo was the last to join her people above Reonoq's atmosphere. She took her rightful place in the command chair of Admiral Ar'alani's flagship's bridge, as if the chair were her deigned throne. No traces of Chiss habitation anywhere aboard the flagship - or anywhere else in the Killik fleet, for that matter - remained to sully ThurSolo's senses here; not even a drop of blood remained for the naked eye to see. The entirety of Thuruht was pleased with which they had so progressively cleaned up to begin their conquest.

After a brief moment of basking in victory over this battle, Thuruht wordlessly coordinated the entire fleet to turn away, as one, from Reonoq and prepare for hyperspace. And again, as one, they disappeared as they left behind the Reo system altogether.

.

The five remaining Masters of the Jedi Order - Saba Sebatyne, Barratk'l, Cilghal, and the Solusars - sat around their council table silently, each of them wondering what to say. Saba looked to Cilghal and Barratk'l, who sat across from each other a couple seats down from the Barabel, and she turned her eye to the Solusars, who sat with each other at the other end of the table off to Saba's left.

She wondered what she, sitting at the head of the table, once again the appointed Grand Master of the Jedi Order against her will, could say, since it was obvious that the others didn't have anything to offer. And really, what was there to say?

_What isn't there to say?_ Saba wondered as she sighed.

"We need to appoint new members," Saba finally announced.

All four of the other Masters regarded her with their emotionally-weary expressions. Saba had expected more overt reactions in response to what she just declared. Then she remembered that, at this point, it was quite stupid to think it could do anything to or for the rest of them.

"Who do you recommend?" Cilghal asked, her voice sullen.

"Jaden Korr, for one," Saba answered. "I think it'z high time that he take a seat on this council, whether he wants it or not."

"Agreed," Cilghal responded.

"Seconded," Barratk'l said.

The Solusars only nodded to Saba.

"I'm also conzidering Tekli, Zekk, Lowbacca, Tahiri Veila, and my zon, Tesar," Saba said. "Any objections."

All of them shook their heads.

"That totals up to roughly ten members in total," Saba said with typical Barabel practicality. "Now I know that we have been able to go these past five years with roughly ten to eleven members, but considering these trying times, I think we need a full twelve. Any recommendations?"

"Perhaps I could fill in?" a familiar voice said at the exit of the council chamber.

Everyone present turned their heads in that direction, and their expressions flared up from depression to utter shock.

"Kenth!" Saba exclaimed.

"Hello, Saba," Kenth Hamner - former acting Grand Master of the Jedi Order during Luke Skywalker's exile from Coruscant nearly two years earlier - said as he regarded the remaining Masters of the Order. His expression was one of bitterness, as if he never forgave Saba for killing him.

No one said anything for a moment before Saba asked, "But... how?"

"You wondered where I was since you all voted me out as Grand Master, huh?" Hamner retorted. "I'm glad I still had some worth to the council."

Then the other Masters' expressions turned from shock to confusion. "What do you mean we all wondered?" Saba asked. "Kenth, I _killed_ you! Don't you remember that? How are you still alive?"

Now it was Hamner's turn to appear confused. "You killed me, Saba? I don't recall that. The last I saw of you, as I just said, you all voted me out of the position of Grand Master on the Jedi Temple's landing pad on Coruscant, when you all figured out the deal I made with Admiral Bwua'tu."

Silence permeated the air from the confusion that this was all bringing.

"Ssso... you don't remember trying to sabotage our escape plan from Coruscant and ending up fighting me?" Saba asked.

Hamner shook his head before his tone took on a crisp, military form, reflecting of his past life as a New Republic soldier. "When you all tried confining me to my quarters, I was attacked; the assailant had somehow knocked out the power to my quarters, thereby making sure I couldn't get a positive I.D. on him, and ambushed me. The only thing I could make out in the dark was that the assailant appeared to be badly deformed, considering that the body appeared to be in a distorted shape not characteristic of any humanoid form I'm aware of.

"But anyway, the attacker tackled me to the floor before I could reach my lightsaber and did this..." He then stripped himself of his robe and lifted up his shirt to reveal a a badly red scar in his right underarm. "...to me." He then pulled the shirt back down and slipped his robe back on. "He bit me, apparently, and it carried something that knocked me out."

"So you were attacked and the guards we placed outside your quarters didn't even sense you in distress?" Cilghal asked.

"That's one of the first things I wondered when I came to sometime later," Hamner continued. "I found myself strapped to a medical table of which I had no doubt was of a starcruiser, since I could since through the Force that it was in hyperspace. Again, the room was dark, with a bright light overhead allowing me to see the faintest hints of my environment. But I knew that it was my assailant who spoke to me from one of the darker corners of the room, considering that his contortions were too familiar not to recognize even in brief moments."

"What did he say to you?" Barratk'l asked.

"He told me that I was out for nearly a year," Hamner answered. "He had me in a coma. He told me everything that happened; your breakout of Valin and Jysella from prison and from carbonite, helping Master Skywalker against the Sith and Abeloth, the coup on Daala, the power shifts in the Galactic Alliance that resulted, and the eventual battle to drive the Sith and Abeloth from Coruscant. And if I may say, those actions were quite idiotic."

"They worked," Saba replied defensively.

"And at what cost?" Hamner asked. "The exile of the Jedi Order from Coruscant and the Galactic Alliance? Three billion people dead because of Abeloth? The possibility of another uprising from that thing, and all the loose Sith still running around in the galaxy."

Saba growled, but one look from Cilghal calmed the Barabel immediately. The Mon Calamari then shifted Hamner's attention to her. "So how did you escape?"

"I didn't," Hamner answered. "My captor simply let me go."

"Why?" Barratk'l asked.

"He didn't tell me," Hamner said. "After he told me about everything that happened the past year, he flicked his hand in my direction, and the next thing I knew, I was falling asleep again. When I woke up again, I was in my quarters for this Temple, and I decided to see what else happened recently. I'm not at all liking what I'm hearing about this new Killik situation, especially not when five Masters-"

"Six," Tionne interrupted.

"Six?" Hamner asked.

"Jaina Solo Fel was promoted to Jedi Master during the battle against the Sith and Abeloth," Tionne elaborated.

"So she finally got married to Jagged Fel, huh?" Hamner inquired. "I wasn't aware of that."

"And it appears you didn't know that she died with Fel either," Saba said. "It was prior to the battle in the Reo system."

"Well, either way, I think we can say that we need every experienced Jedi to lead this Order, especially with Luke Skywalker no longer among the living," Hamner said.

Everyone nodded in agreement to what Hamner said, the first time they all truly agreed with him since he had been bestowed the title of Grand Master when Luke was exiled.

"But that still doesn't explain how you could be here when I clearly remembered having to end your life in battle so you wouldn't interfere in our plans against the Sith and Daala," Saba said. "Are you sure there isn't anything more you can offer for a description of your attacker?"

"Well..." Then his eyes flashed in horrified remembrance. "There is one thing."

"What?" Saba asked.

"From his voice, from his accent... he was clearly a Yuuzhan Vong."


	24. Chapter 24

For nine years, Tenupe, the tropical world that served as the climactic endgame for the Swarm War, had been under the control of the Chiss Ascendancy. As such, they had destroyed several miles worth of ecology within the northern hemisphere to create a military base for nearly two thousand troops. In orbit, as per Ascendancy regulations, a silver, spotless, conical space station a thousand meters in length and a thousand meters in width served as border control both on- and off-planet.

The male docking master, seated in a desk within a windowed room located in one of the station's upper levels, had no reason to fret as a fleet of Ascendancy Star Destroyers dropped out of hyperspace into the system. With ease, he simply picked up his comm and hailed.

"Ascendancy Destroyers, what is your business here?" the docking master asked.

A few seconds later, when there was no answer, the docking master repeated the question.

"We are here to drop off supplies to the surface," a familiar elder Chiss voice responded on the other end.

The docking master raised his brows. He recognized the voice, but couldn't put his finger on who it was exactly. "There is no shipment scheduled today."

"Compliments of the Ruling Houses," the elder Chiss responded. "They felt that your exemplary service here was worth an extra delivery."

The docking master's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Even if anyone in the Ruling Houses thought this - and he doubted it, considering that very little occurred here in this system - he couldn't imagine that an extra delivery wouldn't have been notified ahead of time. The docking master was about to say just that before it clicked in his mind as to who the owner of the voice on the other end was.

"Ambassador Chaf'orm'bintrano?" the docking master asked.

"Yes?" the ambassador's voice returned inquisitively.

"May I ask why you are part of an extra delivery shipment that has gone unscheduled in one of the more remote Ascendancy bases?" the docking master asked. "From what I can recall, didn't you have business with the Killiks in the Reo system?"

"Am _I_ not allowed to partake in this delivery, um... what is your name?" Formbi asked.

"Lieutenant Repar'ala'nali," the docking master answered. "And no, I don't see why you wouldn't be allowed to take part in this shipment; unless, of course, your business with the Killiks has concluded."

"_I_ can assure you, Repar'ala'nali, that _my_ business with the Killiks has concluded," the ambassador replied. "Now, if you will allow us to arrive on Tenupe..."

Something wasn't right, Ralan thought. And the way that Formbi referred to himself; it was as if he had to muster up some kind of will to say it. Ralan knew that he had to stall so he could get an idea as to what was going on.

"May I talk to Admiral Ar'alani first, please?" Ralan asked.

"Why?" Formbi asked.

"I just want to have a word with her, that is all," Ralan answered.

"Any business that you have with Admiral Ar'alani can be addressed to _me_, as well," Formbi countered.

"Is that so?" Ralan inquired.

"Yes," Formbi said.

"Hmm. Well, if that is the case, then why can I not speak to Admiral Ar'alani?"

Again, another few moments passed before Formbi said, "That is on a need-to-know basis, Lieutenant."

Ralan ground his teeth in frustration. He knew all too well what a need-to-know basis encompassed. Still, he needed to continue playing for time.

"Well, I think I need to know what is going on here," Ralan outright stated.

"You seem frustrated, Lieutenant," Formbi said. "Why is that?"

Instead of answering the ambassador's question, Ralan asked, "Is there anyone else that I may speak to?"

"Of course," Formbi answered.

"Well, may I talk to someone else?" Ralan asked.

"Sure," Formbi said. "Who would you like to talk to?"

"Frankly, anyone but you, Ambassador," Ralan said.

"And why is that?" Formbi inquired.

Ralan sighed. He couldn't play his hand yet; but he knew that Chiss such as Formbi were not as patient as the ambassador currently was. There was something wrong, after all./ Now to find out what exactly.

"You won't allow me to talk to anyone else, would you?" Ralan asked.

"Of course _I_ wouldn't," Formbi responded.

"On a need-to-know basis?" Ralan asked.

"Indeed."

Ralan put his hands in his head to vent a vestige of his frustration before he continued. But before he opened his mouth, a horrifying thought occurred to him. Time to go all in.

"Ambassador, if I were to tell you something, would everyone else in your party also know what I told you?" Ralan asked.

"Yes, they would."

"Even if I told you that what I had to tell you was meant only for the two of us?"

"Yes," Formbi responded instantly. Then his voice became panicked. "Uh, we, uh, I mean, um, no, no, we, uh, _they_ wouldn't know what was said between us. Not at all." During the ambassador's panic, Ralan was able to hear _click-clacking_ sounds that the lieutenant was all too familiar with during the last war that the Ascendancy was involved in.

"Are you sure about that?" Ralan asked, his suspicion gradually turning into fear.

"Yes, why wouldn't you be?" Formbi asked, his voice slightly calming from the panic that had just been present in his tone.

"Good point," Ralan said, thinking quickly as to what he should do next. "If you would just wait an hour, you may deliver your supplies for Tenupe." An hour was just enough for the troops down on the surface to evacuate and return to Csilla; with this much firepower, there was no way that they would defeat the Killiks.

Ralan had no doubt that Ambassador Formbi was a Joiner now. And he wasted no time in pressing the button on his desktop that would transmit a signal that would send a black alert for the troops, which should tell all of them that they needed to evacuate Tenupe ASAP.

"An hour is too long, Lieutenant," Formbi responded. "We need to deliver the shipment now."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Ambassador," Ralan said as he pressed another button on his desk that would activate the space station's automatic laser cannons. He quickly set the configuration that would set the cannons to fire against the Star Destroyers.

"And why not?" Formbi asked, his tone subtly angry.

"You have a collective mind," Ralan said as he set the alert for everyone to evacuate the station. "You figure it out." Then he closed the communication, shoved the comm in his pocket, and left his office in a hurry.


	25. Chapter 25

Along the way to one of the space station's escape pods, Ralan made a brief trip to his auxiliary office, which had been established for extreme measures such as this, so that he could set the self-destruct for the station. He set the timer for ten minutes and didn't hesitate before he continued the rest of the way for an unoccupied pod.

A little more than two minutes later, the docking master managed to make it to a pod and simply launched for space. During that time, he managed to catch glimpses of explosions as he saw other pods and ships, either coming from Tenupe or from the station itself, ending up destroyed by the invading Star Destroyers and clawcraft. Paying no more mind to the deaths of his friends and comrades, as it would undoubtedly lead to his own demise, Ralan steered his escape pods for a nearby shuttle that, so far, had avoided the attention of the invaders.

But just when he was less than a hundred meters from the shuttle, a trio of clawcraft flew in and destroyed Ralan's hope of rescue with a few well-placed laser shots. Still a military-minded individual, though, Ralan didn't pay a microsecond more for the lost shuttle before he turned away to find some other means of salvation; otherwise, he'd be a sitting duck for those clawcraft, what since he didn't have any weapons nor was the escape pod all that maneuverable.

A few minutes later, Ralan felt all control for the escape pod cease when he found, on his vessel's sensors, that it was caught in a tractor beam. He retraced its origin and his stomach sank; he was now being pulled in by one of the Star Destroyers.

Ralan's comm beeped. Not knowing what else to do, he opened up the connection.

"Docking Master Ralan," Formbi's stilted tone came from the other line. "We see that you decided not to take the easy way out of this situation."

"By easy way out, I suppose you mean let myself and all the other Chiss troops here join your hive mind?" Ralan spat.

"Of course," Formbi replied simply. "And seeing as how you decided to take your pathetically noble approach of 'saving' all your friends and comrades from an oh, so disastrous fate, we feel that you should be spared to join us after all."

"You sought me out through the Force, didn't you, just for this, huh?" Ralan asked. He knew that the Killiks would be headed by a Jedi like Raynar Thul if they were to take over an entire fleet of ships from the Chiss Ascendancy. "I'm flattered you think so highly of me," he concluded sarcastically.

"Consider yourself lucky, Ralan," Formbi replied. "The resistance that your troops offer against us give them nothing but death."

"I think they prefer that," Ralan countered. "I know I certainly would."

"The closed-mindedness of individuality; what a folly you all have," Formbi commented in a pitying tone.

Ignoring that remark, Ralan asked, "Can you at least tell me how long it is going to take you to bring me aboard."

There was no response for a few seconds before Formbi came back with, "Approximately two minutes and eighteen seconds. Why do you ask?"

_Two minutes and eighteen seconds_, Ralan thought. He'd been counting how long the space station had before it would self-destruct.

Just enough time, he concluded with a smug smile.

"Take your time," Ralan replied neutrally, not betraying his thoughts outwardly.

Sure enough, a little more than two minutes later, the station glowed from a brilliant explosion that threw off the Star Destroyers and the rest of the ships nearby, whether they'd be Chiss- or Killik-inhabited. Ralan then found himself flying all about the interior of the escape pod as it spiraled out of the tractor lock and away from Tenupe. The pod hadn't stopped spinning before Ralan fell unconscious.

.

Darth Plagueis exited his bunker quickly with Ford and Five-U on his tail. He didn't stop when he noticed the corpse of a teenage human female lying outside the bunker and paid her no more attention as he continued for the YT freighter model up ahead. When he got close enough, he saw at the side of its hull an inscription that gave it its name: _Faux Harla_.

He stopped a few meters from the ship and turned to Ford and Five-U, who only just caught up with him. "Can either of you pilot this?" he asked.

"We both can," Ford said. "But we already have another ship-"

"We can take that, too," Plagueis interrupted. "The more resources, the better." He looked to Five-U. "You, take the other ship and follow us." Without another word, he turned back to the disk-shaped freighter and used the Force to open up its boarding ramp.

As Plagueis jogged up into the ship, Five-U looked to his captain for confirmation.

"You heard him," Ford said hastily before following his master into the YT.

Five-U then turned for his captain's vessel and ran for it.

A few minutes later, the _Faux Harla_ was up in the air and was soaring for the skies of Sojourn. Captain Ford's own ship wasn't far behind.

.

When Ralan awoke, he found himself laying in a bed of an Ascendancy medical bay. He took in his surroundings and noticed a young female nurse walk in.

"Oh, good, you are awake," she said. "You suffered a minor concussion. You should stay in here for at least another hour."

"We got out, didn't we?" Ralan asked, almost completely ignoring what the nurse just told him.

She nodded patiently. "Yes, thanks to you," she said. "One of the shuttles about to depart the Tenupe system found you and pulled in at the last minute. You were one of the lucky ones."

Ralan suppressed a snort, recalling when Formbi said that he should consider himself lucky when the Killiks thought he would made an addition to their hive mind. Instead, he nodded curtly. "How many managed to make it out?"

"From what I know, at least... eighty-seven percent of Ascendancy forces made it out of the system," the nurse told him. "We're all on our way to Csilla, just so you know."

"Good, good," Ralan nodded. He then sighed in muted sadness. "It's still a shame we lost people there."

"We could have lost a lot more if it weren't for you," the nurse assured him. "And to a fate worse than death, I might add."

"It still doesn't change the fact that fellow soldiers of mine died back there," Ralan said, frustrated. "Even after you fight so many battles and lose so many friends, it never gets any easier."

"I could only imagine," the nurse said sympathetically. Then her tone became more serious. "Like I said, you need to stay in here for at least another hour before the doctor sees you." She then turned and left the medical bay, leaving Ralan alone with his thoughts.


	26. Chapter 26

One of several Star Destroyers orbiting the Chiss capital of Csilla, the _Militant Explorer_ served as the commanding vessel of General Soontir Fel, one of the few humans to have a post within the Ascendancy. Of course, that wasn't the case a mere four years earlier, as he and his entire family had become impoverished when they were unable to pay reparations for the damage caused by Jedi Knight Lowbacca during the Swarm War; after all, it was Fel's son, Jag, who released Lowbacca from Ascendancy custody almost a year prior to the Swarm War.

But since Jag became the Head of State of the Imperial Remnant just after the end of the Second Galactic Civil War, the costs to the damage done had been paid handsomely with interest. With that, Fel was able to regain a post within the Ascendancy as his family name was completely restored thanks to his son. And now, here he was, sitting in the command chair of the _Militant Explorer_ as the only human in the system to have a position this high.

A young male Chiss lieutenant came before his human superior officer and presented him with a datapad. "General Fel, urgent news from nearby Tenupe."

Soontir Fel took the datapad and looked through the information it contained. His eyes widened in horror at what was presented before he returned his attention to the lieutenant.

"Have any of the Phalanxes received this information yet?" Fel asked.

The lieutenant shook his head anxiously. "No, sir. You are one of the first commanders in the fleet to receive this information."

"We need to act fast," Fel responded as he returned the datapad to the lieutenant. "We must stop the Killiks again."

.

Because of all the Force-changing events that had occurred recently, Darth Krayt, leader of the One Sith, one of the most powerful and fearsome Force-users in existence, decided to commit the only action he thought was sensible now: lock himself within his throne room until he thought it was safe to come out again.

He knew that this seemed foolish, cowardly, and even childish to his followers, particularly to his closest confidant in Wyyrlok. But at least none of them had the gall to voice that, for they knew that for all of his fear, he could still snap any and all of their necks with a mere thought. And to him, that, and exterminating the Killiks and whatever other new force that had just arose to power, were the only things that were important to him right now. Wyyrlok should have sent some agents to at least find out what happened in the Sojourn system by now. No matter what, though, as long as he stayed in here, Krayt thought, no harm could come to him.

But as if the Force took that thought up as a challenge, the floor before Krayt exploded before his danger sense could even register what was occurring before him. He couldn't help but flinch in abject fear even as the fire suddenly settled into smoke, revealing a large crater in the floor. And out from that crater came someone who Krayt never expected to appear, yet he feared more than even Luke Skywalker himself.

Jacen Solo, decked out in black garments, brandishing his classic green-bladed lightsaber, didn't even decide to commit a stare-off against Darth Krayt as he simply rushed the Sith Lord.

Krayt reflexively whipped out and ignited his own saber, blocking Solo's strike to his torso. He then kicked the Jedi Knight square in the chest and sent him flying back toward the hole from whence he came. But Solo turned his fall into a backward flip, which he easily augmented by using the Force to carry himself back and over the smoking hole.

Krayt followed as he leaped from his throne and towards Solo. He came down slashing and cutting violently for his Jedi opponent, but the latter, even as he was being forced back to the locked doors behind him, managed to deflect each and every one of the incoming strikes with deft ease and precision. And when he was finally forced back up against the door, he simply jumped up just as Krayt slashed against the door and he kicked the Sith in the face, sending him back across the room.

The leader of the One Sith crashed halfway from the smoking hole in the floor and rolled a few more meters before coming to a full stop. He then leaped to his feet and charged Solo, who was also charging him. The two combatants traded several more clashes against each others' sabers before Solo parried away a strike from his opponent and used his free hand to punch Krayt across his yorik coral-encrusted face, sending loose bits of coral everywhere as a bit of the Sith's pinkish flesh underneath was revealed.

Krayt stumbled back slightly from the incredibly powerful punch and managed to get his guard up just in time to block off a strike for that exposed skin. More clashes between them followed before Krayt managed to get his and Solo's blades into a lock against the floor, brandishing a blackening scorch against its smooth surface as the Sith tried to decapitate his Jedi foe with a spike from his right forearm. Solo ducked beneath the strike and turned it into a forward flip which he used to sail over Krayt's head. He turned in midair so that he would be facing Krayt's back upon landing, but the Sith also turned just as quickly to meet Solo as he landed.

Nevertheless, when Solo did land, he back-flipped three times until he was just standing on the edge of the hole behind him before he unleashed a Force wave for Krayt. The latter managed to avoid it easily by leaping over it, and the wave sent a dent into the locked door farther back in the room. Then, while he was soaring through the air, Krayt used his free hand to send a stream of Force lightning for Solo. But the Jedi blocked it with his lightsaber and used the Force to allow his blade to absorb the harmful energy.

When Krayt landed a few feet from Solo, he ceased the Force lightning attack altogether and let loose a feral scream as he attacked the Jedi with more strikes. But Solo managed to stand his ground successfully this time, as he was not driven an inch back to fall into the hole behind him as he expertly dodged the slashes that became more desperate as Krayt drove on with intense ferocity.

Finally, after a little more than a quarter of a minute, Solo decided to step back and fell through the hole. Krayt looked immediately, but found that his foe was already nowhere in sight. His danger sense alerted him too late, however, before the floor beneath his feet exploded from a powerful Force wave that sent him rocketing fast for the ceiling. He hit it hard with his back, not having a chance to use the Force to cushion the impact one iota even with his yorik coral armor protecting him from the majority of the impact. Still, the resultant contact left Krayt winded as he began his descent for the empty floor that he was now descending towards.

But before he could do anything about his descent, Solo seemed to manifest out of nowhere beneath him and the Jedi stabbed up his lightsaber. Krayt managed to block the strike as before, but he couldn't defend himself from the punch to his exposed flesh that came from Solo's free hand. The Sith then flew sideways back to his golden throne where he crashed right through its upper section. He collapsed, prone to the floor, with the pieces of his throne that he crashed through.

When Krayt turned onto his back, Solo suddenly soared in from the other side of the throne and came down with a slash. But this time, when Krayt moved to block the attack, the emitter nozzle of his lightsaber was suddenly cut away by the green blade, leaving the Sith Lord weaponless now as his Jedi foe leveled his own saber at his exposed flesh.

"Do you yield?" Solo asked.

Instead of replying, Krayt grabbed one of Solo's legs and sent a surge of electricity coursing through the Jedi's body.

But instead of convulsing in pain as expected, Solo simply smiled as he seemed to absorb the energy like a sponge would for water. In fact, at one point, he seemed to actually revel in it as he closed his eyes and made it seem like he was taking a refreshing shower. Krayt looked on in and shock and awe, still unconsciously sending all that electricity to Solo, before the Jedi seemed to snap out of his reverie and said, "I'll take that as a no." Then he swung his saber and decapitated the Sith Lord, ending the stream of electricity.


	27. Chapter 27

Jacen swiftly turned from Krayt's decapitated corpse just as the door to the throne room was blown open by a Force wave generated by a male Chagrian Sith Lord. The Sith had two male human acolytes behind him, who already had their lightsabers in hand and activated. Jacen wondered what took them so long to respond, as the explosion to the throne room was quite loud and obvious, and Darth Krayt's distress from then to the point of his death should have provoked a quicker response than this.

But upon seeing who their Master's killer was, the Chagrian only stared at Jacen in utter shock with his acolytes. No doubt they were in disbelief that the infamous Jacen Solo, confirmed dead four years earlier, was the one to murder Darth Krayt, leader of the One Sith.

Before anyone could say anything, the sound of a loud engine roaring nearby soon became deafening as an old-fashioned Imperial shuttle rose from the still-smoky hole that Jacen emerged from. The shuttle's nose pointed for the Chagrian and his acolytes, and it instantly fired upon them with green lasers. They were all too slow to dodge the lasers, and they were essentially atomized where they stood.

After that, the boarding ramp to the shuttle lowered for Jacen to leap onto and grab hold onto one of its struts. He held for dear life as the shuttle rocketed forward through the palace, blasting various Sith with lasers along the way. Those Sith that the shuttle's pilot missed, Jacen easily decapitated along the way with his lightsaber.

Upon coming up to a wall, the shuttle fired out another laser that blasted the wall to smithereens, allowing it to soar out of the Sith Temple and for the night skies of Korriban. Jacen then made another leap straight into the shuttle, but pressed his back against the wall that was now behind him. He then took out his comm and activated it.

"Onimi, did you set the charge yet?" Jacen asked.

.

"I just did, my man," Onimi responded into his own commlink. He now stood on top of a piece of circular silver metal, which was balanced on top of a collection of more than a dozen thermal detonators, which were all stuck via superglue onto the roof of Korriban's Sith Temple.

"Then what are you waiting for, activate it!" Jacen exclaimed.

"Roger," Onimi said before deactivating his comm and replacing it back into his belt. He then took out a cylindrical device and pushed the red button on top of it before quickly putting it back into his belt.

Two seconds later, with a Force shield around him, the entire One Sith Temple turned into a pillar of fire which only became fatter when Onimi's Force shield pushed the explosion down beneath him. The deformed Yuuzhan Vong only used the tremendous impact left by the explosion to rocket him into the skies of Korriban on a sure trajectory for the Imperial shuttle that Jacen was now aboard.

And as he flew for the shuttle, Onimi sung the opening to _The Circle of Life_ by Elton John.

When Onimi was close to the shuttle, he shut down his Force shield and kicked away from the piece of metal as he grabbed hold of the bottom of the still-open boarding ramp. He then climbed aboard the ramp and was given a helping hand by Jacen to come inside. The human then shut the ramp by pressing a button next to him.

"Oh, I forgot, did you also make sure those bomb droids would also come with you?" Jacen asked.

Onimi nodded with a mischievous smile. "What kind of friend would I be if I _didn't_ make sure those droids would work?" he retorted.

.

Bare minutes later, after the shuttle was through the atmosphere and confronting a fleet of One Sith vessels, seemingly outmatched in a hopeless situation as a typical holodrama hero, the army of extremely tiny spider droids, which were a millimeter in length and width, that had followed the shuttle up into space were instantly programmed with a directive from the shuttle: destroy the Sith ships.

And so, before any vessels from the One Sith could fire so much as a laser for the shuttle, they all went up in flames that were soon extinguished in the vacuum of space as the spider droids latched onto those vessels' hulls and destroyed them, killing each and every Sith aboard.

It was now smooth sailing for the shuttle to leave the system.

.

"Good work, Nommy," Onimi said as he and Jacen entered the shuttle's cockpit to meet its pilot, Nom Anor. Onimi clapped his fellow Yuuzhan Vong in between his shoulder blades in a gesture of friendship and celebration.

"Thanks," Nom Anor said with a smile. "I'll admit, it was pretty cool the way we left the Sith Temple like that. I felt like one of those holodrama action heroes, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Jacen nodded. "So I reckon that's all gonna set the One Sith back a few decades or what?"

"They shouldn't be much of a problem for the Jedi and Galactic Alliance to deal with," Onimi commented. "Now all they and us have to deal with are those damn Killiks."

"And the Chiss Ascendancy, no doubt," Nom Anor chimed in. "Looks like it's gonna be a second Swarm War."

Jacen nodded, resigned. "And let's not forget this new Sith presence that's emerged. We need to take care of that, too. I say we go after that first; I think the Jedi and GA can handle the Killiks and Chiss on their own for a while. It shouldn't hurt 'em too much if we go after this new Sith."

Onimi and Nom Anor nodded. "So let's go find it," Nom Anor concluded.

Then he turned back to the shuttle's instruments, input some coordinates, and a moment later, he pulled down on the hyperdrive lever, placing the ship into hyperspace.


	28. Chapter 28

The Ascendancy fleet sent from Csilla dropped out of hyperspace and ended up in the Tenupe system, where the various Star Destroyers, clawcraft, and other vessels now manned by the Killik nest of Thuruht hung over the system's titular planet in high orbit. And without offering the enemy a chance to sue for peace, as the Chiss would normally allow, the Star Destroyers in the fleet commanded by General Soontir Fel opened fire on the opposing fleet.

Naturally, the Killiks also began firing back with their own Destroyers. Within seconds, the shields of the capital ships of both fleets were emblazoned by projectiles of all kinds, and it wasn't long before clawcraft squadrons launched out of their Destroyers' hangar bays to engage each other in wild dogfights.

Among the Chiss pilots battling the Killiks was Ralan, one of the many survivors from when Thuruht took Tenupe mere days earlier. With fierce determination as one of the first pilots to engage the Killiks in this battle, he lead two fellow pilots into the fray of combat as part of a unit split off from a larger squadron. They fired lasers for the incoming Killik clawcraft, blowing more than a dozen of the enemy away in the initial moments of battle while also dodging opposing projectiles.

When the clawcraft from both sides finally intermingled and the dogfights actually began, one would think that both Chiss and Killiks would end up confused in the midst of combat, unsure of whether or not they killed a friend or foe. Fortunately for the Killiks, they had their hive mind to keep them in from blowing away their fellow insectoids. The Chiss, on the other hand, had already labeled, via battle-coordinating computers, the different clawcraft from each other just as they dropped from their Star Destroyers' hangar bays, and then programmed those specs into friendly clawcraft for their obvious benefit.

That benefit helped Ralan and his two squad mates negotiate their way through friendly and enemy fire within the now-clustered battlefield. And it doubly helped them as they continued to blast away Killik-piloted clawcraft by the fives and sixes now.

"This is almost too easy," one of Ralan's fellow pilots - Yeraq, he remembered - commented as he blew up one, then two clawcraft away. "And we used to be afraid of these guys?"

"Cut the chatter, Yeraq," Ralan interjected expertly, blowing up three more clawcraft before he continued with, "You can't afford distractions right now."

"Yes, sir," Yeraq replied as he blew up another Killik fighter.

But Yeraq was right, Ralan thought in the midst of taking down four more Thuruht craft. And that thought alone worried Ralan; if it's too easy, it's too good to be true. That motto was what kept him alive for so long as an Ascendancy soldier, when the odds seemed to favor him in a way that could get him killed if he let it go to his head. After all, at any moment, anything could happen that could change the tide of battle for the worst.

But so far so good was another motto that kept soldiers alive in the midst of combat.

.

Now that the _Faux Harla_ and Captain Ford's Mindabaal ship were in hyperspace, with Five-U piloting the latter, the droid once formally known as 11-4D, who now sat in the copilot chair of the _Harla_, looked to his Master, who sat upright in the pilot's chair.

"How do you feel in your new body, Lord Plagueis?" Ford asked.

"Slightly odd," Plagueis replied in the late Ben Skywalker's voice. "Human physiology is a strange sensation. But one I have no doubt I can adapt to."

"Of course," Ford nodded.

"May I ask, though, why you couldn't find a Muun body, even if it weren't Force-sensitive, OneOne-FourDee?" Plagueis inquired.

"Personally, I felt that you returning through the body of a descendant of yours would be more profound," Ford answered.

"Descendant?" Plagueis asked.

"You remember the child known as Anakin Skywalker, do you not, Master?" Ford asked.

"Of course I do," the human nodded. In the days leading up to his death in the hands of Darth Sidious, Plagueis had lived long enough to be informed by his treacherous apprentice that a human male of nine years named Anakin Skywalker had been brought to Coruscant from an obscure world called Tatooine by maverick Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Sidious, in his public guise as Senator Palpatine, had been told by Jedi Master Dooku that, according to Jinn, Skywalker had been born of the Force.

While that in and of itself was significant enough, Plagueis had special interest in it, as roughly a decade prior to Skywalker's arrival to Coruscant, he had commenced an experiment through the Force to create life in his vain attempts to prolong his life indefinitely and become immortal. Apparently, that experiment had succeeded with Skywalker as its fruitful result. Unfortunately, Plagueis didn't have the opportunity to even meet the boy, as Skywalker had again been taken by Jinn to the Jedi Council so they could determine whether or not he should be trained as a Jedi. Skywalker was then brought to Naboo by Jinn as they joined Queen Amidala to help her fight the Trade Federation, which had blockaded her homeworld as part of his and Sidious's schemes to get the latter into the position of Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

"Well, the body that you now inhabit is the grandson of Skywalker," Ford explained.

"Grandson?" Plagueis asked, astounded. "How long have I been dead?"

"About seventy-seven years, Master," Ford answered simply.

"You sure took your time," Plagueis replied snidely.

"Thank you," Ford replied, seemingly unaware of Plagueis's irritance.

After a moment of silence between Plagueis and Ford, the former asked, "Why are the Jedi banned from Coruscant?" Before they left Sojourn through hyperspace, Ford informed his Master that the Jedi were banned from Coruscant due to recent events, so now they were traveling into the Unknown Regions where they could better determine what course of action they should take now.

Ford then explained the Liberation of Coruscant from the Lost Tribe of the Sith - whose history Ford knew little about - by the hands of the New Jedi Order about half a year ago, and how the entity known as Abeloth's decimation of the planet coerced the populace to exile the Order permanently.

"You call them the New Jedi Order," Plagueis pointed out when Ford concluded his summary of the Coruscant liberation. "Why are they called that?"

"It was largely because of Lord Sidious's actions, sire," Ford answered. "You see, after he killed you and became the Supreme Chancellor of the Old Republic, he spent about ten years further manipulating events so that he could bring about the Clone Wars, which pitted the battle droids built by the Trade Federation and the Kamino-based clones of Jango Fett into a three year war that the Jedi were forced to get involved in."

Plagueis raised an eyebrow. So Sifo-Dyas's support for the project allowed for Sidious to continue the Grand Plan on his own. Had he not held any lingering resentment for his former apprentice, he'd openly complement how he'd been able to use his own Master's resources for his own uses.

"By the end of those three years," Ford continued, "Lord Sidious managed to wipe out the Jedi Order using the Fett clones and used their demise to become Emperor of the Galactic Empire, ending the Clone Wars."

"Impressive," Plagueis said, unable to help himself over what Palpatine managed to accomplish without him. "Most impressive." For a moment, he wondered if Palpatine was right in betraying him. "So I assume that the Empire is still strong?"

"Not as strong as it once was under Emperor Palpatine's rule," Ford said. "He managed to rule for twenty-three years before his untimely demise under the hands of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. After his death, the Rebellion took Coruscant and became the New Republic while the remnants of the Empire struggled to regain control of what they had. At one point, though, Sidious did return via clone bodies, but he died for good thanks to the son of Anakin Skywalker, Luke, who became the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order. A few years after Sidious's final demise, the Empire surrendered and became content to rule what space they had left."

Plagueis's face dropped in disappointment. He had dreamed a long time for a galactic empire ruled by the Sith; it was the deal he made with Palpatine at the beginning of his training, so that while Plagueis pursued his own ambition of living forever, Palpatine would climb through the political ranks of the Old Republic from being an ambassador from Naboo to Supreme Chancellor. Hearing that Palpatine had accomplished what Darth Bane himself had set out to do more than a millennium ago raised Plagueis's spirits so high, and to learn just as quickly that that very empire was a mere shadow of its former power...

He remembered when he watched as Aborah had been attacked by a nuclear strike courtesy of Naboo's former King Ars Veruna. It was the closest thing to heartbreak that Plagueis could endure with his multiple hearts in his Muun body. Now, with this human body that had only one heart, he very nearly shed a tear in hearing how close the Sith had come, and how far they had fallen because of his apprentice's boundless ambition.

"Of course, the Empire became stronger after extragalactic alien invaders known as the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy two decades ago," Ford continued. "And since the end of the recent civil war four years ago, which preceded the Lost Tribe of the Sith's takeover of Coruscant, what is now known as the Imperial Remnant is the second most powerful government behind the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, or the Galactic Alliance for short."

"I thought they were called the New Republic," Plagueis said.

"They were, but they changed their name as a symbol of reorganization during the Yuuzhan Vong War," Ford said.

"Ah," Plagueis nodded in understanding. "Well, in either case, _second_ most powerful doesn't cut it when it comes to the Sith."

"No, it does not," Ford agreed.

"Speaking of the Sith, whatever occurred with the Rule of Two under Sidious's hand?" Plagueis asked.

"Well, following your death, he had simultaneously lost the acolyte known as Maul when Queen Amidala retook Naboo from the Trade Federation," Ford continued. "So he was unable to take him as an apprentice. However, in moving his plans forward, he sought former Jedi Master Dooku, who became Count of his homeworld Serenno, as his first apprentice, and Dooku helped push forward the events that would lead to the Clone Wars by forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a collection of various corporations and industries that included the likes of the Trade Federation, the Techno Union Army, and even the InterGalactic Banking Clan. I think you would find it most interesting to know that San Hill, the son of your assistant Larsh, had headed the Banking Clan during the war."

Plagueis smiled. While he didn't care for many people in his life as a Muun, there were very few people that Plagueis could say he had even the merest slivers of positive feelings for; Larsh Hill, who died in an attack carried out by Maladian assassins who tried to murder Hego Damask, was one of those people that Plagueis had cared for. His own parents, he was fond of while they were alive, and whilst he found it utterly satisfying to end his life, he harbored no real resentment of his Master, Darth Tenebrous. Obviously, 11-4D, or Ford as he was now known, was also someone who Plagueis didn't mind, and though he hated him now, he was still impressed with Palpatine as an apprentice through and through.

"Anyway," Ford pressed on, "Count Dooku, or Darth Tyrannus as he was secretly known, died near the end of the Clone Wars at the hands of Anakin Skywalker, and to my knowledge, it was an event orchestrated by Lord Sidious himself."

Plagueis looked, interested at what his droid told him. "Oh?"

Ford nodded. "As it turned out, Lord Tyrannus was nothing more but a mere placeholder for a Sith apprentice for Sidious, and one of the main drives for the Clone Wars. Sidious's real desire for an apprentice came in Skywalker, who he gradually swayed from the path of the Jedi to the dark side of the Force as Chancellor Palpatine."

"Anakin Skywalker had become a Jedi after all?" Plagueis asked.

"Yes. The Jedi Council overlooked the fact that he was a year too old to begin training, given his extremely high midi-chlorian count. Chancellor Palpatine used all the precious time he had with Skywalker to manipulate him to the dark side, especially during the Clone Wars."

"Did Sidious succeed in gaining Skywalker as an apprentice?" Plagueis asked.

"Indeed, he did," Ford said. "What really ensured that Anakin Skywalker would join the Order of the Sith Lords was the promise that he could save his wife from death by childbirth."

"Wife? I was under the impression that the Jedi Order disavowed deep personal attachments to others."

"Oh, they were, which was why only a select few knew about their marriage," Ford explained. "Sidious was not one of those people to know directly, but he managed to find out through Force intuition, as I understand it. Anakin had been receiving visions through the Force about his wife, Padme Amidala, from such a painful demise." Plagueis raised an eyebrow in knowing that Skywalker had been able to romance the Queen of Naboo. "And Sidious used that to make sure that she would not die if he were to turn to the dark side; in fact, he actually used you as an example of what the dark side could do."

"I'm flattered he still thought highly of me, at least," Plagueis commented wryly.

"Indeed. And so, as the Jedi Order fell, Anakin Skywalker had become Darth Vader, the true apprentice to Lord Sidious and the second most powerful figure in the Galactic Empire."

"And he got to be with his wife in the end?"

"Ironically enough, no. His turn to the dark side destroyed her, especially after she gave birth to twins, Luke and Leia. Yet he looked upon it as his own personal failure, and he went on as the Emperor's second-in-command for the Empire."

Plagueis chuckled. "Amazing. Palpatine failed to deliver on his promise, and yet he still got what he wanted in the end with Skywalker as his apprentice. No wonder I sought him out not only as an apprentice, but as an ally."

"Indeed." Ford's tone was evenly neutral even for a droid. Plagueis figured that he didn't care much for Palpatine, especially since he witnessed him kill their Master, but the Sith didn't press.

"You mentioned that Sidious died at the end of his twenty-three year reign before he was brought back only to die again years later," Plagueis said. "What happened to Vader?"

"He was redeemed from the dark side by his son, and he killed Palpatine the first time," Ford said. "Then he died from the wounds he suffered when commencing that act. I must comment, though, it seems odd that when Darth Bane established the Rule of Two, he intended it to stop the Sith from destroying themselves. Yet in the end, even at their lowest number, that still happened."

"If Vader was redeemed, then he was no longer a Sith," Plagueis countered stiffly. "Therefore, while Bane's Rule of Two died, it did not die because the Sith destroyed each other."

"I see," Ford replied. "Quite defensive about it when you yourself believed that it was an antiquated idea?"

"Antiquated for me, for I sought to live forever," Plagueis argued, feeling his patience tested by one of the few people he could come close to saying he cared for. "For anyone else, even Lord Sidious, it should always be applied. I do not object when he decided that Lord Tyrannus was disposable if he always viewed him as a placeholder to Skywalker."

"Fair enough," Ford said.

Plagueis then sat back in his pilot's chair silently for a moment before looking back at Ford. "Can you tell me about these Yuuzhan Vong? Whatever happened to them?"

"As I mentioned, the Yuuzhan Vong were extragalactic alien invaders who used bioorganic technology in their conquest of the galaxy twenty years ago," Ford explained. "They believed that the galaxy was ordained upon them by their gods, and that all mechanical machinery was an abomination to life. Hence, they viewed the native inhabitants as 'infidels' from what I understand, and obviously, given my own mechanic nature, they were quite a reason as to why I was so delayed in serving you to the best of my ability for four years. During their conquest, they had destroyed entire worlds such as Ithor and Sernpidal, invaded many such as your home of Muunilinst, Commenor, and even Coruscant, which they occupied for the last two years of their invasion as their homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar.

"By the end of their reign of the galaxy, the living world known as Zonama Sekot appeared in the skies of their proclaimed 'Yuuzhan'tar' and helped the Galactic Alliance in defeating them."

"They were exterminated?" Plagueis asked, hearing the existence of a living world that could travel through space, as he understood it, being placed in the back of his mind for the moment.

"Actually, no, surprisingly enough, they weren't, although personally, I and trillions of other beings still wish they were," Ford said. "No, what happened was that their Supreme Overlord, Shimrra Jamaane, had been killed by Luke Skywalker, and his death led to the surrender of the Vong, as they viewed Jamaane as their sole connection to their gods; no connection to the gods, no reason to fight on, they thought. The Yuuzhan Vong who didn't kill themselves after hearing this news were transported by Zonama Sekot out into the Unknown Regions where they would be safe from the vengeful denizens of the galaxy, most notably the Bothans, who declared their legendary _ar'krai_ against the Vong for killing New Republic Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya, who was himself a Bothan."

Plagueis was familiar with _ar'krai_. He had heard that not only did the Bothans wipe out several species that they went to war with in the distant past, but they also made sure that any records of those species' existences were wiped from any and all of galactic record, making the extinction of those nameless races complete. He obviously admired their cunning viciousness.

"So the Yuuzhan Vong are still alive?" Plagueis asked with interest.

"Well, not a word of Zonama Sekot's whereabouts have come up since it ferried the Yuuzhan Vong into the Unknown Regions," Ford said. "So for all the galaxy knows, Zonama could have collided with a star and died a fiery death, taking the last remnants of the Vong with it. But again, for all the galaxy knows, it can still be alive out there with the Vong."

"What would this planet want with the Vong?" Plagueis asked.

"From what sources I do know concerning that matter," Ford said, "it seems that Zonama Sekot is actually the offspring of the Vong's real homeworld back in their own galaxy. And what it wants to do is reconnect them with the Force."

"Reconnect them with the Force?" Plagueis inquired.

"The Yuuzhan Vong could not be sensed through the Force, according to the Jedi," Ford said.

"Really? How is that possible?"

"From what I could gather with the information I received, the Vong had been stripped of the Force eons ago back in their home galaxy by their living homeworld," Ford said. "There, they had been confronted by a race of droids that sought to exterminate them - which at least makes their hatred of mechanical machines understandable - so the Vong resorted to violence to solve their problems. Unfortunately, even though they won against those droids, their newfound addiction to war and death caused their homeworld to permanently cut them off from the Force. When that happened, they went on to destroy their homeworld and the rest of their galaxy, forcing them into the Intergalactic Void for millennia to eventually reach and invade this galaxy."

"So Zonama Sekot is the offspring of the Yuuzhan Vong's homeworld?" Plagueis asked.

Ford nodded.

"And it is reconnecting them to the Force, as we speak?"

"As far as anyone knows, yes."

"Fascinating," Plagueis said. "Well, since we're heading to the Unknown Regions anyway, I think that it's time we commence some experiments again, OneOne-FourDee."

"As you wish, Lord Plagueis," Ford said in a reluctant tone. "It'll be good to utilize my scientific programming again, at least."

"And you can even cut open some Vong, if that makes you happy," Plagueis came back.

"That's an intriguing prospect, I'll admit," Ford said. "If only we knew where to look first."

"Leave that to me," Plagueis said. "With the Force, I'm sure it won't be hard to locate a living planet in the galaxy."


	29. Chapter 29

Ralan hauled up hard on his clawcraft's pilot yoke before two red lasers nearly hit the backside of his starfighter from behind. He then threw his fighter into a loop so that he ended up behind his attacker and blew the opposing clawcraft into nothingness with two well-placed lasers of his own. Next, Ralan swerved his craft starboard and once again blasted a Killik-manned clawcraft into oblivion with two more lasers before flying through the briefly-flaming wreckage to blow up two more, though all it took was one laser to each of their engines to end them.

An hour had passed since the battle over Tenupe began, and for all the losses that the Chiss fleet incurred - having lost a quarter of your forces was nothing to hand wave at even if you were a politician concerned only with statistics - the Killiks had lost more than double their number in combat so far. Obviously, the odds were not going in their favor, and Ralan couldn't help but smile at that little factoid as he strafed a total of five more Killik-manned clawcraft, blowing each and every one of them in turn with at least two lasers to the cockpits.

"I wonder how these bugs managed to take Admiral Ar'alani's fleet back at Reonoq," Brilla - the female Chiss pilot who was part of Ralan's trio in this battle - openly declared in the channel shared between them.

Before Ralan could tell Brilla to cut the chatter and refocus her efforts on the battle, just as he did for Yeraq earlier, he suddenly screamed in agony as his mind was almost instantly assaulted by some kind of powerful pressure. Abruptly, his clawcraft veered out of control and he, Yeraq, and Brilla all collided with each other, ending their lives simultaneously in one grand blast.

~o~

On the surface of Tenupe, within the base that once belonged to the Chiss, the one that could be called the ruler of Thuruht, ThurSolo, sat in meditation on the floor of the base's hangar bay alone. With intense concentration, she was commencing the next move in Thuruht's plan of galactic domination.

When she had first focused her efforts against the Chiss back in the Reo system, it had been done with the entirety of Thuruht supporting her. But now that they had lost more than could be acceptable here in this one battle, a change of tactics was in order, obviously. And it was needed even if the entire nest was unaware of her actions right now.

The Killiks needed support, and they would not get it if they could not at least try to turn their enemies to their side.

After all, galactic domination was meaningless if not everyone was on your side.

.

About ten minutes later, all remaining Chiss in the former battlefield that was the Tenupe system were under the hive mind of Thuruht. Hostilities ceased almost immediately between the Ascendancy and Killik forces as ThurSolo managed to telepathically inform her insectoid brethren that their enemies, at least in the system, were all on their side now. All of Thuruht regretted that, when ThurSolo reached out to touch the minds of the Chiss, some of them died in the process. Nevertheless, as the now-combined forces of the Killiks and Chiss returned to their respective Star Destroyers, they all turned their capital vessels to leave the planet behind via hyperspace.

Next stop, Csilla, Thuruht and its new Chiss Joiners all thought. Objective: Destroy the Chiss Ascendancy from within.

.

The newest Masters to the New Jedi Order - Jaden Korr, Tahiri Veila, Zekk, Lowbacca, Tesar Sebatyne, and Tekli - all stepped into the Council room in Shedu Maad's Jedi Temple where their six veteran counterparts waited in a semicircle. At the head of the circle was Saba Sebatyne, now formal Grand Master of the Order, and to her left were Cilghal, Kam, and Tionne Solusar respectively while on her right were Barratk'l and Kenth Hamner. His presence didn't surprise the newcomer Masters as they were briefed ahead of time of Hamner's nature of being from an alternate reality somehow.

Wordlessly, the six new Masters took their seats. Jaden sat directly opposite to Saba, and Tahiri and Zekk sat to his left respectively while Lowbacca, Tesar, and Tekli sat to his right, completing the circle around the Council table.

"Now that everyone iz here," Saba said, "let's get down to business.

"When the survivors from the Battle of Reonoq, such az myself and Master Barratk'l, departed the Reo system, no doubt we left the Killikz at the mercy of the Chisz Ascendancy. By now, there iz no doubt that the battle is over, and it is most likely that the nezt of Thuruht has lozt, perhaps even exterminated for good measure on the part of the Chisz. Even so, we have already dizpatched Jedi Knight Seff Hellin to investigate the system, and he should be there within a few hourz to give the Council a report.

"The issue here does not lie with the Killikz. What does matter to the Order right now iz our relations with the Azcendancy, especially that Admiral Ar'alani herself declared war on the Jedi for interfering at Reonoq. Unfortunately, given the Order's current limitations in resources in the long term, we cannot afford a full-zcale war with the Ascendancy. I am open to any zuggestions as to how we should resolve our conflict with he Ascendancy."

"Perhaps we should attempt peace with them," Kenth Hamner offered.

Every single Master looked at him in askance.

"I don't suppose anyone has any better ideas?" Hamner asked snidely, feeling as unwelcome now as he did when his own Council was going agaist him back in his home reality.

"It could be the best possibility, after all," Cilghal reluctantly agreed. She then focused her attention on Saba. "After all, Master Sebatyne, you yourself just stated that we're too limited on resources to pursue war with the Ascendancy. And we can't look to the Galactic Alliance for assistance, as not only have we been outright exiled from the government, but I somehow doubt the Alliance would risk another war with the Ascendancy anyway, especially since the Chiss are so far beyond their borders."

"Do we really need to look to the Alliance for support?" Tahiri piped in. "We have the Hapes Consortium supporting us. I'm sure Tenel Ka won't mind sparing us a fleet or two-"

"Even the Queen Mother haz her limits in power, Master Veila," Saba interrupted. "Her open support for the Order by allowing us to live here on Shedu Maad is a strain against the anti-Jedi sentiment that still pervades the Consortium. Azking her to support uz in a war against the Azcendancy would be a breaking point for her power baze, as it nearly was when she was first asked to lend a fleet on behalf of the Jedi." She regarded Tahiri sharply, reminding her of the time when she and the rest of the new Masters, with the exception of Jaden, had helped the Killiks against the Ascendancy during the Qoribu crisis.

"What about the Imperial Remnant then?" Tahiri followed up, almost in defiance of Saba's reminder.

Saba sat back in her seat in contemplation for a moment. "It'z possible," she said. "Would Head of State Reige be so willing to lend support against the Ascendancy?"

"The Empire and the Ascendancy have been on good terms for many years, especially with the Fel dynasty acting as a strong bridge between them," Hamner said. "I somehow doubt that Reige would want to compromise the relations."

"So what are you saying, Master Hamner?" Barratk'l asked. "We should look weak before the Ascendancy and bow to their every whim, especially whenever they want to exterminate a species?"

"I think it's safe to say we already are weak, Barratk'l," Hamner said. "If we attempt war in our current state, and with our significant losses, not only will we lose, but we'll look foolish for the very attempt."

Silence permeated the moments that followed Hamner's words before it was announced by Kam, "I'm afraid you're right, Kenth."

"But Barratk'l is right, too," Saba said almost too quickly. "We can't juzt lay back and allow the Ascendancy have their way with us."

"So what do you propose, Master Sebatyne," Hamner asked as if it were a challenge.

"Outright war with the Ascendancy is foolish indeed, Kenth," Saba prefaced. "But even with our limited numbers and resources, we can still beat the Ascendancy."

"How?" Hamner asked.

"The zame way we beat the Lost Tribe of the Sith."


	30. Chapter 30

The fleet that had been sent out to Tenupe roughly half a day earlier dropped out of hyperspace several light years from Csilla, the homeworld of the Chiss Ascendancy. Thuruht, who were only a system away in their own Star Destroyers, viewed the snowy planet through the eyes of General Fel and his Chiss subordinates. They would begin their part in assimilating the Chiss here before the Killiks could occupy it officially.

_Soon, the Ascendancy will die_, Thuruht thought, _and we will reign supreme_.

.

Just as Saba, in the cockpit of her StealthX, was prepping her starfighter for launch in the Jedi Temple's hangar bay with her fleet of Knights and Masters, her comm buzzed. She took it out of her pocket and brought it up to her lips.

"Grand Master Sebatyne here."

"This is Jedi Knight Seff Hellin reporting from Reonoq," the male voice on the other end responded.

"What have you to report, Jedi Hellin?"

"I've found an entire fleet of destroyed Ascendancy shuttles scattered across the planet with dead Chiss inside the hulks," Hellin reported. "And while I've found thousands of Killik corpses as well, I could not locate the remainders of the nest that would still be lurking underground. I would assume that the Chiss would have exterminated them, but then there would still be Killik bodies or traces left."

"You mentioned that there were still Chiss remainz," Saba pointed out. "Assuming that the Chisz won and did exterminate the Killikz, why would they just leave destroyed resourcez and dead brethren behind?"

"That's what worries me, Master Sebatyne," Hellin said. "This makes me think that the Killiks may have somehow defeated the Chiss and escaped the Reo system."

"If that is true," Saba said, "then this situation is worse than we thought." It's bad enough that the Jedi had to contend with the Chiss Ascendancy, but now, if the Killiks also became a problem, assuming they weren't already, then a second Swarm War may be on the Jedi Order's hands.

.

The _Faux Harla_ and Captain Ford's ship dropped out of hyperspace, and shining before Plagueis's eyes and Ford's photoreceptors, as well as Five-U's, was one of the greenest, lushest planets that they ever saw.

And to Plagueis, it brimmed with power and intelligence through the Force.

Zonama Sekot.

Just as Sekot's full presence blossomed through Plagueis's senses, it quickly assaulted his mind, causing a painful spasm that caused him to collapse to the deck of the _Harla_'s cockpit.

"Master!" Ford exclaimed, kneeling next to the human. "What's wrong?"

Ford's words were an auditory blur to Plagueis, for another feminine, more menacing voice spoke through the Sith Lord's mind.

_You cannot hide your darkness or malevolent intentions from me_, the voice said. _Your power is all but a microcosm of my own, and I could end you so easily right now. So tell me why I shouldn't just do that and spare myself, my people, and the rest of the galaxy from your evil?_

It took Plagueis a moment to work through the pain that Sekot was giving him as he tried to work out something to telepathically commune.

_You would risk going to the dark side just to stop me__?_ he asked. _I do not sense any darkness in you._

_I will do what I must for the best of the Force_, Sekot replied.

_So killing me would be for the best of the Force?_ Plagueis asked.

Sekot was silent for a moment before she said, _No. No, it wouldn't. For it now tells me that you are necessary to bring balance to it_.

_Really?_ the Sith asked. _How?_

_Come to me, and you will know_, Sekot said. _The only thing that I will deny you is a single individual among the Yuuzhan Vong. I will not allow you to take "specimens," as it were. The vessel accompanying you will be allowed to join you_.

_Fair enough_, Plagueis thought.

The pressure was relieved from his mind and he pushed himself off the deck to sit back in the pilot's chair, a concerned Ford watching the whole time in utter silence.

"What happened, Master?" Ford asked.

"We've been invited," Plagueis said before he commed Five-U. "FiveYou-AmFourAn, do you read?"

"I copy," Five-U replied.

"Follow us," Plagueis said before cutting off communication. He then began piloting the _Harla_ to Zonama as Captain Ford's ship followed suit.

.

After Seff piloted his StealthX out of the atmosphere of Reonoq, a blip suddenly appeared on his sensors. It was coming in from around the planet's envelope relative to his departure point, miles off to his starboard. When Seff looked with his own eyes through his cockpit's canopy for any sign of this blip, he saw, in the distance, some kind of dark, wing-shaped eye-like ship headed his way.

_Jedi_, a dark, masculine voice said in Seff's mind.

Without any warning from either his StealthX's sensors or his own Force senses, a giant, metal ball rocketed from the opposing ship and was on a sure trajectory for Seff's starfighter. Acting quickly, Seff pushed the throttle on his vessel and rocketed himself away from the speeding ball, which passed mere meters from the rear end of the near-invisible fighter.

But even more metal balls soared for Seff at a more consistent pace, causing the Jedi to quicken his ascent from Reonoq's gravity well before ultimately deciding to swerve around and confront the enemy vessel head-on as he began firing lasers at it. Several metal balls were destroyed by the outgoing lasers before the balls ceased to be spewed from the other ship.

_Ship_, Seff realized. This was the Sith Meditation Sphere named as such, which was found by Ben Skywalker years ago during the Second Galactic Civil War on the backwater Sith world of Ziost. Seff knew of this thing because of its prominence in helping Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of the Sith during the Jedi's conflcit against them.

Just as Seff realized this, Ship managed to soar above the Jedi's lasers before renewing his ball-spewing. Seff veered his vessel to port, still continuing his stream of lasers along the way. Again, Ship avoided this stream by diving relative from Seff before looping around and firing more metal balls at a more aggressive pace.

Seff once again tried to avoid this new stream by veering off to starboard, but one of the latest metal balls managed to punch straight through the StealthX's port wing. Naturally, the starfighter began swerving out of control and began heading back for Reonoq. One more metal ball to one of the StealthX's exhaust ports blew the entire ship up, ending Seff.


	31. Chapter 31

_Shall we go now?_ Ship asked its human male Sith pilot, Dubloch Velk, who knelt near the front of the Sith Meditation Sphere.

_Yes_, Velk replied telepathically. _No doubt the Jedi will send another to investigate what happened to the one we just killed though._

_And no doubt they'll send more than just one_, Ship responded. _And it may be more than I can handle._

_True_, Velk thought. _You think it's time to return to Korriban to see what happened?_

_Why would I not_?Ship retorted.

_Then let's go_, Velk thought.

With that, Ship began traveling away from Reonoq to exit his gravity well before jumping into hyperspace.

As the Sith Meditation Sphere allowed for the blue of hyperspeed to pass it by, it left Velk alone with his thoughts. He and Ship both felt the sudden deaths of Darth Krayt and several other fellow members of the One Sith; Velk didn't doubt for a second that the Jedi were involved somehow, even in spite of what they just suffered days earlier in the Reo system. That was why Velk thought that he and Ship, who hid near an area of Reonoq that the Killiks hadn't inhabited, should stay and kill at least some of the Jedi task force that would no doubt come to back to assess what the Chiss did to Thuruht after they left. It was curious that they only sent one Knight, but regardless, Velk had nothing to complain about there.

Still, despite the satisfaction he got from slaying that Jedi with Ship, he obviously couldn't let that overcome the apocalyptic sensation he felt when Krayt and the others died. It was bad enough when Vestara, a former member from the Lost Tribe of the Sith, just like Velk, who was right around her age, perished somewhere else in the Outer Rim. Velk, like his late friend Ahri Raas, who died years ago as part of the strike team against the Skywalkers, which Vestara herself was a part of, aboard Sinkhole Station, felt attracted to the scar-tainted girl ever since they all reached adolescence. It was a shame that she ultimately fell for the younger Skywalker.

One way or another, Velk thought, the Jedi would pay, not only for the deaths of Krayt, the Lost Tribe, and the One Sith overall, but especially for Vestara.

.

Within six hours of General Fel's return from Tenupe with the remainders of his fleet, he sent out a request to the Chiss Phalanx Council. The request was that half the members of his fleet would transfer positions with half the members of the rest of the Ascendancy fleet over Csilla. Normally, such a request would be questioned by all members of the Council, but all it took was a slight psychic nudge on the individual effort of ThurSolo, who, while a mere system away with the Killik members of the nest, was still able to use her overall connection to Thuruht as a mental bridge, thus allowing her abilities to at least manipulate the Council members into approving Fel's request; had she been in the same system, her manipulation could have been stronger, but as it was, the dilution due to distance was something of a hindrance.

Regardless, once the acceptance of the request occurred, it took roughly three more hours for listings of individual members of the orbital fleet to sort everything out before the transfers could actually take place. An hour after the listings were complete, the shuttles that would ferry the unquestioning Chiss soldiers to their new postings launched. Not a single one of them ever knew that they were falling for a Killik trap, nor did any of them have a clue that their secretly hive-minded brethren would only spread that trap.

Upon arrival to the other Star Destroyers, they proceeded to their new postings that didn't differ from their actual functionality. But before any of them reached those postings, they were all assaulted by fellow Chiss who made them sniff cloths of concentrated Killik pheromones. All it took was one inhale from these cloths for each individually-assaulted Chiss, and they were instantly part of the Thuruht hive mind.

Likewise, for those Chiss already part of that hive mind and who were proceeding to their new postings elsewhere, they attacked their individually-minded brethren where they could, without total risk of failure, and made them inhale the cloths of Killik pheromones, making them part of the hive mind in an instant. It took almost two hours for the hive-minded Chiss aboard the other Star Destroyers to complete the process of turning their fellows into Joiners.

It wouldn't be long before those on the surface, including those in the Phalanx Council, would be part of Thuruht.

.

Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle dropped out of hyperspace within the system that Zonama Sekot occupied. Almost immediately, they were hailed by the planet, and Jacen, who was piloting with Nom Anor as copilot and Onimi as navigator, opened up a frequency.

The hologram who responded took the form of Magister Danni Quee. Her initial apprehensive look was quickly replaced with shock. "Jacen! I-I thought you were dead!"

"It's a long story," Jacen said. "But basically, you're right that the Jacen of this reality's been dead for about four years now. I'm from another reality, along with my friends." Onimi and Nom Anor waved at the hologram in greeting. "Anyway, Danni, Onimi, Nom Anor, and I are all looking for a dark presence who Onimi and I traced here."

"Ah, yes, I know who you mean," Danni said in a solemn tone. "We've been told to wait for three people we would not expect to help him."

"Help him?" Jacen asked, concerned.

"Come on down and you'll see what I mean," Danni said before cutting off communication.

.

After the shuttle landed and was parked a few klicks outside the Yuuzhan Vong village of La'okio, Jacen, Onimi, and Nom Anor all walked down the boarding ramp to be greeted by Danni, Ben Skywalker, and two droids that the trio of new arrivals were unfamiliar with.

But when Jacen reached out through the Force, he knew that this wasn't Ben.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The Sith who possessed Ben's body smiled malevolently. "An ancestor of yours," he said. "Of sorts, anyway. I am Darth Plagueis, Master of the one you knew as Emperor Palpatine and the one who manipulated the midi-chlorians to create Anakin Skywalker, your grandfather. In a way, Jacen Solo, I am your great-grandfather." Plagueis executed a bow of introduction.

"Not in this reality, buddy," Jacen countered. "I don't know about who was my great-grandfather on the maternal side, but I sure know it ain't you in this dimension."

"Maybe not," Plagueis replied. "But in either case, you three are here to help me."

"Help you with what?" Jacen asked.

"To save the galaxy, of course," Plagueis answered, his smile still devious.


	32. Chapter 32

An Ascendancy medical frigate from one of the orbiting Star Destroyers soared down through the chilly atmosphere of Csilla and headed for one of the closest hospitals. A hole in the hospital's roof opened up for the frigate, allowing it to hover down into the building proper before the ceiling now above it closed to prevent anymore heat from leaving the hangar bay.

Seconds after the vessel had landed and parked, its landing ramp opened up immediately and an apparently-unconscious Ambassador Formbi was carefully levitated via hovergurney down the ramp by a Chiss soldier. They were met by two female nurses, who had been notified of the med frigate's impending arrival by one of the hospital's receptionists, and who were obviously sent to see what happened to the hospital's latest patient.

"He's had a heart attack," the soldier aptly informed them. "Our facilities are inefficient to help him." While it may not make sense why any Ascendancy Star Destroyers would not have such facilities to treat something as relatively simple as a heart attack, it was doubtful that either nurse would question him for the moment, at least.

Instead, the nurses only nodded as one of them took the hovergurney out of the soldier's hands and then she and her colleague began rushing the elder ambassador out of the hangar bay toward one of the hospital's medwards. The soldier, meanwhile, turned away and headed back up the ramp to return to his duties aboard one of the Star Destroyers, his job here done.

Now it would take a while for the pheromones to spread...

.

"Oh, what a twist!" Onimi exclaimed sarcastically. "A Sith is gonna have to team up with a Jedi to save the galaxy! Like that's never happened before."

"What a shame you're not entertained," Plagueis replied flippantly. "Now, you three are going to help my droids-" He indicated Ford and Five. "-and I make sure that Abeloth can never return to wreak havoc on this galaxy."

"And in return, we allow you to go free and try to take over the galaxy yourself?" Jacen asked with a frown.

"The thought did occur," Plagueis remarked.

Jacen looked at Danni. "Is Sekot gonna allow him to do this?"

"Unless you stop him yourself afterward, Jacen, Sekot has no choice but to allow Plagueis to roam free after you all defeat the Killiks and Abeloth," Danni said in a remorseful tone. "Sorry."

Jacen sighed, then looked back at Plagueis. "And how exactly are you fitting into all this?"

"I am to wield the Dagger of Mortis, the only weapon capable of ending Abeloth for good," Plagueis answered. "It is found on a world known only to me."

"Known only to you?" Jacen asked. After Plagueis nodded, he inquired, "Why doesn't Sekot know?"

"The Force didn't tell Sekot where I should go," Plagueis responded simply. "It only told me where I should go."

"Why?" Jacen asked.

Plagueis shrugged nonchalantly. "Who can know the ways of the Force?"

"And you won't tell us, why?" Jacen asked.

"If the Force wouldn't allow for the living world of Zonama Sekot, or you, or your Yuuzhan Vong friend there-" Plagueis indicated Onimi "-then surely there must be some reason as to why I should not reveal it to anyone else. Besides, I have no interest in sharing that knowledge anyway, especially not to a Jedi. No offense." At those last two words, Plagueis's tone sounded insincere. "My droids, however, will accompany me to this world."

"And what are my friends and I supposed to do in the meantime?" Jacen asked.

"You're to make sure the Jedi are off my back," Plagueis said, "and have all their attention focused on the Killiks."

Jacen looked back to Danni in disbelief. "Is he for real?"

"I'm afraid what he is saying is true, Jacen," Danni said, again remorseful. "From what Sekot knows, Grand Master Skywalker had already dispatched a team of Jedi Knights to search for the Dagger of Mortis, did he not?"

"From the realities I've visited, I think it's safe to say that that's the case here, yeah," Jacen said. He looked back at Plagueis. "You want us to stop the Ten Knights, Plagueis?"

"I don't need you to do that for me," Plagueis responded. "The Ten Knights have already passed the planet that I am to visit. I will have no encounter with them."

"Good for you," Jacen replied insincerely. "So, again, how should we keep the Jedi 'off your back?'"

"Like I said, by making sure all their attention is directed towards the Killiks," Plagueis repeated.

"At this point, I doubt the Jedi need Onimi, Nommy, or I to direct their attention to the Killiks," Jacen said.

"So it would seem on the surface," Plagueis said. "But you, of all people, know never to underestimate the Jedi. I certainly don't."

Jacen pulled a wry expression. "True enough. But can I ask one more question?"

"Of course," Plagueis answered simply.

"Why are you the one to wield the Dagger of Mortis?" Jacen asked. "Why not anyone else?"

"Are you doubting the will of the Force, Jedi Solo?" Plagueis countered. He then shook his head with a _tsk-tsk-tsk_ in a mocking mimicry of expressing disappointment. "And to think you once trusted it implicitly when you killed Onimi back in your home reality. Oh, yes, I know about that; the Force told me about it for the purposes of this partnership."

"Gee, thanks for bringing that up," Onimi piped in.

"Very well," Jacen said, ignoring Onimi. "But just know, Plagueis; when this is all said and done, I am going to stop you, and I fully intend to make sure that Ben returns to take his body back from you."

Plagueis smirked. "Good luck with that. You might as well revive a cadaver that's been rotting for ten years by summoning its ghost back to inhabit it. But who am I to discourage you?" Again, at that last bit, Plagueis was clearly being sarcastic. His expression and tone became serious again. "At any rate, though, expect to die if you come after me, young Solo."

"If it means stopping you, even if I can't bring Ben back, then it'll be worth it," Jacen concluded.

"Shall we take our leave now, Master?" Ford asked Plagueis.

"Not just yet, Ford," Plagueis said, not looking away from Jacen. "I have one more thing to say to the Jedi here."

"Very well then," Ford said, obviously nervous as to whether or not the contention between his Master and Jacen would come to a head at this most inappropriate time.

Plagueis then took a few steps forward until he was face-to-face with Jacen. "It's a shame that we're on opposite sides of the Force, ideologically," Plagueis said in a genuinely regretful tone. "From what I know about you, you seem to have quite a few ideas about it yourself. I myself am curious about the nature of the Force, and not just its dark side. But while I lean more to the scientific basis of the Force, you tend to question the philosophies behind it. It's admirable, definitely a trait that distinguishes you from other Jedi. I imagine that, at the very least, we could have been acquaintances. It'd be nice to talk to someone else about just the nature of the Force."

Jacen didn't respond. Plagueis then turned away and took his leave with Ford and Five-U, just as Jacen did with Onimi and Nom Anor.


	33. Chapter 33

Ship hovered a few dozen meters over the ruins of Korriban's One Sith Temple, allowing Velk to regard the still-smoky remnants of his Masters' home in horror. Through the transparency that the Sith Meditation Sphere formed at its forward section, Velk was at a loss over how the One Sith could be defeated like this. Surely, it must have taken a whole army of Force-sensitives, perhaps even the Jedi themselves, to eliminate the last bastion of hope for the Sith as a whole.

_This world does not have the taint of the light side left in its wake_, Ship interjected in Velk's thoughts. _It could not have been an army of Jedi_.

From that, Velk took a moment for himself to determine who could have possibly done it. "Another Sith sect then?" he asked aloud.

_I doubt it_, Ship replied. _For no Sith would team up with a Jedi to defeat fellow Sith_.

Velk's eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "You just said that the Jedi couldn't have done this."

_I said that an _army_ of Jedi could not have done this. If it were an army, this whole world would reek of the Jedi's time here. Only in what remains of the Sith Temple does the essence of a single Jedi linger, along with an independent Force-user._

"How can that be possible? There's no way that at least two Force-users can defeat the One Sith like this!"

_Like what? We don't know how exactly they did defeat the One Sith._

Velk sighed in defeat. "Good point. So what do we do now?"

_We investigate. We find out what exactly happened here._

"Then we go after the bastards who did this," Velk followed up with conviction.

_Let's not be too hasty. If and when we are to avenge the One Sith, we must do so with caution lest we end up like our fellows below us. Whoever did this is much too powerful to combat with conventional methods_.

.

Thuruht felt the Jedi enter the Csilla system. And while the Chiss members of the hive mind who were present in the system couldn't see their Force-sensitive enemies, they knew they were there in their invisible StealthX fighters.

The entirety of the Ascendancy fleet in orbit over Csilla had been assimilated into the hive mind already. Regardless of whether or not the Chiss on the planet were part of it yet, Thuruht was ready to combat the Jedi now.

Thus, without any verbal indication from anyone in the fleet, all the Ascendancy Star Destroyers turned in the direction that the Jedi StealthX fleet secretly appeared from and began firing.

.

Saba veered her StealthX port-side to avoid getting hit by an incoming green laser bolt that was bigger than her own fighter, only to just as quickly veer back starboard so that she wasn't atomized by another of the projectiles. She continued to veer left and right for several moments to avoid more incoming bolts thanks to her reptilian reflexes, all the while trying to mentally tune out the reports from fellow Jedi coming over her in-ship comm regarding the losses of Jedi who were just eliminated by the laser barrage.

When the Jedi were halfway between their dropout point from hyperspace and the Ascendancy Star Destroyers, the latter ceased their barrage of lasers and instead began giving up squadrons of clawcraft that rushed to engage their invisible opponents.

Like the predator-at-heart that she always was, Saba hissed in delight as she increased speed to her StealthX to take on one of the clawcraft. Any questions as to how the Chiss could have figured out that the Jedi arrived left her mind as she lost herself in battle.

.

Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle dropped out of hyperspace and began traveling, under Jacen's piloting, through subspace alongside the icy corridor that was the Maad system for the planet that housed the base of the Jedi Order. When they were halfway to the planet, they were hailed.

"Unidentified Imperial shuttle, this is the Jedi Temple. Identify yourself and state your intentions here," the masculine human male voice on the other line said after Jacen opened up communications.

"This is Jedi Knight Jacen Solo responding." His tone was a little hesitant and nervous; what with him being a dead Sith Lord in this reality, he somehow doubted that an extreme reaction wouldn't go by. "I'm here to see the Jedi Council."

Silence permeated the other line before the voice responded with, "Is this a prank? Who is this?"

"Like I said, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo," he answered. "Jacen Solo from an alternate reality, that is."

"And how is that possible?"

"Long story," Jacen said.

"I got nothing better to do today. Try me."

Jacen sighed and began explaining his predicament, even having to reveal Onimi and Nom Anor's presence with him. The Yuuzhan Vong, who were in the nav chair and copilot seat respectively, also became nervous as Jacen went along.

"Have you been smoking Gungun grass recently, son?" the voice on the other end inquired after Jacen finished his tale.

"We have, but that's not the point," Jacen said. "The point is, you don't have to worry about me being an evil Sith Lord, nor do you have to worry about my Yuuzhan Vong friends. We just need to see the Jedi Council immediately."

"Even if I were to believe you, why do you wanna see them?"

"It has something to do with the Killiks," Jacen answered.

"What about them?"

"They need to be stopped, obviously," Jacen said. "And my friends and I are here to help them with that."

"Well, I can't let you see the Council anyway, even if the Killiks are a genuine threat at this time," the man said. "They're not here, 'Jedi Solo.'"

"What?" Jacen asked incredulously. "Then where are they?"

"That information is classified. Until we can confirm and verify who you are exactly, there's no way you're going anywhere near Shedu Maad until the Masters come back from their mission."

"You will tell us where the Masters are and what they're doing," Jacen said, putting the Force behind his words as he attempted a mind trick.

"Nice try, pal. You can't trick a Jedi Knight with that."

"You will tell us where the Masters are and what they're doing," Onimi said as he used his words to telepathically manipulate the individual on the other end.

"Csilla, attempting to destroy the Chiss Ascendancy so they won't pose a threat to the Order," the man said in an instant, with a dreamlike tone in his voice.

"Thanks," Onimi said before he closed off communications himself. "Let's get outta here."

Without anymore coercing, Jacen turned the shuttle around and zoomed away from Shedu Maad to leave the system.


	34. Chapter 34

"Saba!" Hamner's voice called over the StealthX comm frequency. "We must abort the mission! We've already lost two-thirds of our forces so far! We can't take anymore losses, and we certainly can't take anymore of the Chiss head-on! We must return to base!"

Saba blew away yet another clawcraft before ending up on the tail of another one that just atomized a StealthX and killed the young Jedi Knight piloting it. "We can do thiz, Kenth! I can feel it! We can win this day! The Forze is with uz!" She hadn't felt like this since the Battle of Talfaglio during the Yuuzhan Vong War so many years ago; sure, they didn't lose a single Jedi in that battle, but for Saba, the feeling of the hunt was too much for her to just abandon this mission and run home with her tail tucked between her legs. And that feeling only increased with every clawcraft she eliminated, and the one she just blew up with two well-placed lasers was no exception.

"Master Hamner iz right, Mother!" Tesar's voice cut in. "We can't win thiz one! It's too much for uz!"

Saba blew away yet another clawcraft, ignoring her son's words. "You cannot feel the Force in thiz, Tesar?" she asked, her tone almost in a trance as she blew up two more clawcraft.

"Mother, the thrill, it'z overcome you!" Tesar declared in shock. "You can't lead us like thiz! Abdicate your authority right now!"

"Not on my life, Tesar," Saba said before she completely shut off communication with the rest of the StealthX fleet.

As she continued to fly through the Csilla system, blowing away clawcraft wherever she found them, Saba could feel through the Force the entirety of the fleet remnant's loyalty dissolve gradually. It was obvious that Hamner and her own son believed that she was unfit now, but as the moments in the battle continued to pass, it was obvious that she would lose followers soon.

She couldn't help but snort in derision. Once, she thought herself unfit to lead the Order against Daala after she killed this reality's Kenth Hamner, and now, this new Hamner would take her place as the will of what remained of the StealthX fleet fell to him. And they would no doubt run while they could, and in the process, show that the Jedi were weak against the Chiss.

_Cowards_, she thought angrily, continuing to blow up Chiss clawcraft every time she found one as she felt the presences of her fellow Masters and Jedi leave the system.

Less than a minute later, after every Jedi who didn't die in the battle left for hyperspace, Saba found herself all alone against an a still-strong army of clawcraft, which she still blew through as if she were a celebrity spending copious amounts of money. She let the thrill of combat completely take her over until anything that was even remotely resembling the calm and calculating individual that was Jedi Grand Master Saba Sebatyne was gone. All that was left was a single-minded predator whose sole purpose was to kill all rivals for her domain.

But after almost five minutes of destroying clawcraft, the overwhelming power of the Ascendancy fleet overpowered Saba's sole StealthX fighter and managed to vaporize her craft, taking her with it.

.

The _Faux Harla_, piloted solely by Plagueis, dropped out of hyperspace along with Captain Ford's Mindabaal yacht, which contained both the captain himself and Five-U. Up ahead of the vessels was their destination.

Plagueis smirked in remembrance. He had been here about one hundred and ten years ago in his public guise as Hego Damask to facilitate a deal between Damask Holdings and this world's monarchy, which not only led to an economic boon for both parties, as well as laying the groundwork for Plagueis's failed attempt to become co-Chancellor of the Old Republic, but it was also where he met his apprentice of thirty-three years, Darth Sidious, then known only as Palpatine.

Naboo.

Plagueis activated his in-system comm. "Captain Ford, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Master," Ford's voice replied.

"Good. Follow me in."

"Yes, My Lord."

Plagueis then shut off the comm and began piloting the _Harla_ toward the planet that, in a way, was both where his descent as a Muun began and where his ascension as a human will begin.

Minutes later, the _Harla_ and the yacht landed outside an abandoned, dying field whose sole remarkable landmark was an equally decrepit homestead. After both ships had their engines shut off, the occupants of both vessels stepped out and closed and locked up the boarding ramps before looking about their surroundings.

Plagueis remembered coming to this homestead not too long after arriving to deal with then-King Bon Tapolo to meet with Cosinga Palpatine, the father of the man who would become Lord Sidious. The Sith, as a Muun, didn't much care for the man, but that was only because they were on opposite sides of the bargain between Damask Holdings and Tapalo. Looking back, Plagueis couldn't feel anything but admiration for the man; he was ruthless and cold, just as he was, and just as his son would grow up to become.

Now what was the home of House Palpatine had been deserted, and Plagueis had a feeling that it had been deliberate. No doubt after Palpatine's first death, the inhabitants of his homeplanet gladly sacked and raided his home out of spite to ruin whatever traces remained of his life here. What a shame, Plagueis thought. Even to his Muun sensibilities, this place was rather... beautiful.

"Is the Dagger of Mortis somewhere nearby, Master?" Ford asked, cutting into Plagueis's musings.

The Sith Lord turned to look at the captain and Five-U. "I can feel it nearby, yes," he said. "Let's find it."

The human of the trio then began leading the others as they walked towards the homestead, where the powerful presence that was the Dagger of Mortis loomed through the Force like a great entity lurking beneath murky waters.


	35. Chapter 35

When Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle dropped out of hyperspace within Chiss space, they were hailed almost immediately. Looking out through the forward viewport and on the sensors, the trio looked at each other curiously before Jacen opened a frequency.

"Unidentified Imperial shuttle, this is Grand Jedi Master Kenth Hamner," the voice on the other line said. "Is this Jacen Solo?"

Knowing that they were dealing with Jedi now, Jacen and Onimi opened themselves up to the Force and felt the presence of hundreds of Jedi out in the star field before them, cloaked by their StealthX fighters. Jacen and Onimi nodded their heads in silent understanding, and even Nom Anor caught on, since he learned of StealthXs as well.

"This is Jacen Solo," the human of the trio replied. "How may my friends and I help you, Master Hamner?" He wasn't sure why Hamner was Grand Master, as he thought that Saba Sebatyne would have taken Luke's place in his death, just as she had before in this reality. But Jacen decided to play along and see what was going on first.

"You can start by telling us how you're alive now, Solo," Hamner demanded.

"Same as you. My friends and I are from different realities."

"Explain," Hamner said.

"Well, you remember the interdimensional entity known as Waru, Master Hamner?" Jacen asked.

"Yes. He transported you and your friends here?"

"Yep. He told us to help the Jedi out against the Killiks, and since the Council would need an extra Master, given the losses so far, we went to your reality, Master Hamner, took you, and dropped you off here."

"You're the ones who kidnapped me," Hamner concluded with an accusatory tone.

"Guilty as charged," Jacen replied dryly.

"Well, the Killiks aren't our prime problem right now, Solo," Hamner said. "It's the Chiss we have to worry about."

"Oh, really?" Jacen asked. "Did you get a report from Reonoq since you left Shedu Maad regarding the fate of the Killiks there?"

"We got one before we left," Hamner answered. "Jedi Hellin explained that there weren't any traces of the Thuruht nest there. Though he doubts that they could have just been exterminated, it's still not something that's worrying us at the present."

"Well, I think it should," Jacen said. "Because I think the Killiks may have taken over the Chiss Ascendancy by now."

"How do you figure that?" Hamner asked with obvious nervousness.

"We learned that the Killiks would still be a powerful threat to contend with from Zonama Sekot," Jacen said, deliberately leaving out the part about Darth Plagueis's involvement in all of this. "So we decided that the Jedi may need more direct help."

"And what could you possibly bring to the table?" Hamner asked.

"Well, after we dropped you off in this reality," Jacen began explaining, "my friends and I went to another reality that had a Cilghal who didn't specialize in biology, nor was she a Jedi, but she was an intelligent, yet crazy, Force-sensitive tech genius. Hell, we're thinking of calling her a witch, because she managed to give us these explosive nano-spiders that can multiply like actual spiders and which can take out an entire fleet of ships with nuclear blasts. It's amazing what she can do. She's like MacGuyver."

"Who?" Hamner asked.

"Oh, nothing, it's just a reference to a reality we visited before we were met by Waru," Jacen said.

"You went to other realities before you met Waru?" Hamner asked.

"Yeah, it's a long story," Jacen said. "Point is, we can help you out, regardless of whether or not you believe me that the Killiks are a bigger problem than you think right now."

"Actually, what you just said, about the Killiks controlling the Ascendancy, does explain something," Hamner said.

"What do you mean?" Jacen asked.

"A few hours ago, we left the Csilla system because the Ascendancy fleet in orbit of the planet somehow figured out that we arrived and decimated more than two-thirds of our forces," Hamner explains. "Grand Master Sebatyne was the last casualty of the battle, as she lost herself in the heat of combat and wouldn't listen to reason anymore, leaving me in her position. But anyway, if the Killiks are controlling the Ascendancy by now, then that explains how they figured out our presence by then."

"Well, just go home with the rest of your fleet, Master Hamner," Jacen said. "We'll take care of the Ascendancy and the Killiks for you."

"I hope you can," Hamner said. "We lost too much lately. The Order needs to rebuild itself right now."

"Understood," Jacen said. "Solo out." He then cut off communications.

"Um, Jacen?" Nom Anor inquired. "Shouldn't we make sure the Jedi stay focused on the Killiks? You know, that way, they won't interfere with Plagueis finding the Dagger of Mortis?"

"Good point, Nommy," Jacen said. He then turned back to the comm console and activated it. "Uh, Master Hamner?"

"What is it, Solo?"

"We got something to tell you," Jacen said.

"What are you doing?" Onimi cut in with a shocked tone.

Jacen waved Onimi and Nom Anor off from saying anymore.

"What do you have to tell us?" Hamner asked stiffly.

"There's a very powerful Sith Lord on the loose somewhere in this galaxy," Jacen said. "His name is Darth Plagueis, and he's currently inhabiting the body of Ben Skywalker. If you can spare any Jedi, you may wanna find him, but don't kill him. Bring him back alive, and that isn't optional."

"Who are you to tell the Jedi Order what to do?" Hamner asked, still stiff.

"I'm the guy who's gonna save your Order and, more importantly, the rest of the galaxy," Jacen replied.

Hamner was silent for a moment. "Why should this Darth Plagueis be brought back alive?"

"Like I said, he's inhabiting Ben Skywalker's body," Jacen said. "I think that if I can expel Plagueis's soul from Ben's body, I can bring Ben back from the Force."

"You're sure you can do this?" Hamner asked after another moment.

"Not a hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty confident that I can," Jacen replied.

Hamner's sigh was audible over the comm frequency. "Just how powerful is Darth Plagueis?"

"When I met him, he seemed pretty powerful," Jacen said. "It may take a Master or two to subdue him."

"Wait, when you met him?" Hamner repeated. "Why didn't you capture him yourself?"

Jacen grimaced. "Because I had to let him go to find the Dagger of Mortis."

"The Dagger of Mortis?" Hamner asked. "What's that?"

"The Dagger of Mortis is the one weapon that can kill Abeloth," Master Barratk'l's voice over the frequency chimed in. "You know, the entity that the Skywalkers needed help from the Lost Tribe of the Sith to confront?"

"Oh, yes, her, I remember," Hamner said. "So this weapon can kill her? I thought she was already dead."

"She is, but she can return," Jacen said. "As a supernatural Force entity, she can do that. But this Dagger is the one thing that will end her for sure."

"Why is this Plagueis to wield the Dagger?" Hamner asked. "Why not anyone else?"

Jacen shrugged, even though it couldn't be seen by Hamner. "The Force said so, I guess. He is the only one who knows where it is."

"Do you know where Plagueis is right now?" Hamner asked.

"I don't know," Jacen said. "All I know is, he's probably wherever the Dagger of Mortis at this point."

"That's really helpful," Barratk'l said. "The Ten Knights have been looking for the Dagger for several months now. We'll probably have no luck in finding this Plagueis, never mind subduing him."

"Well, when you find him," Jacen said, "go easy on him. If the Force is correct, he should be the one to take down Abeloth, and we can only hope for a chance for Ben Skywalker to return."

"I guess I have no choice but to take your word for it, Solo," Hamner said. "We'll see what we can do. You just take care of the Killiks and Chiss for us."

"Not to worry, Grand Master Hamner," Jacen said. "You can count on me."


	36. Chapter 36

The Killik-manned Chiss Ascendancy Star Destroyers dropped out of hyperspace and into the Csilla system to meet the waiting fleet of hive-minded Chiss-manned vessels. With the unison afforded to them by their collective consciousness, they all wordlessly turned their Destroyers Coreward and prepared for another hyperspace jump.

Thuruht had completed their assimilation of the Chiss into their hive mind. Now it was time for the rest of the galaxy.

.

Reluctantly, Wynn Dorvan stepped outside the Imperial Palace, walked up to the podium erected near the steps leading up to the Palace's entrance for this specific occasion, and cleared his throat before he began to speak to the army of holojournalists and reporters in the crowd before him.

"Good evening," he began. "I, Chief of State Wynn Dorvan, am holding this press conference in response to the leaked information regarding my allowance of Jedi Master Jaina Solo Fel to come here to Coruscant two weeks ago. This information has been damaging not only to my term in office, but also to public morale given the ban on the Jedi Order from Galactic Alliance space more than a year ago." It had been a day since word of this information came out, and still, Galactic Alliance Security couldn't figure out how it all went viral. While Dorvan couldn't know for sure himself, he had a feeling that the sleazy holojournalist, Javis Tyrr, who was now among the crowd of reporters, had something to do with it.

Tyrr had been part of the anti-Jedi sentiment that Daala's reign had so vigorously supported, yet even his methods were ones that Daala was wary of backing up. That was why Dorvan had Daala's blessing as Chief of Staff to disgrace him as the unethical journalist that he was. Around the time of the Jedi Order's ban from the Galactic Alliance, however, he had since regained popularity among a good portion of Coruscant's populace via the HoloNet, and Dorvan couldn't even stop him from returning to the career that had once led to his fall from grace with the public. And now here the reporter was, near the front of the crowd, barely able to repress a smirk; Dorvan could tell this, considering his ability to read people thanks to his inclination as a sabacc player.

"I am ready to take questions now," Dorvan concluded.

As could be predicted by any mortal being, even without the Force, all of the reporters began yelling questions, trying to attract the Chief of State's attention as if they were more important than the rest. Dorvan suppressed a sigh of frustration before he pointed to Javis Tyrr; he figured he should get the worst out of the way first, and the sooner he was done with Tyrr, the better. Almost immediately everyone else quieted down.

"Chief Dorvan," Tyrr called out, "the public would like to know why you would allow any member of the Jedi Order to return to Coruscant given the ban that you just mentioned. Does it have anything to do with the recent problems with the Killiks nearby the Unknown Regions?"

The crisis with the nest of Thuruht wasn't exactly closed off as news to the Galactic Alliance, but Dorvan was surprised that even Tyrr was able to connect the dots between what was happening on Reonoq and Solo Fel's presence here weeks earlier. Still, he answered with, "Yes, it does."

"Could you please elaborate?" a female Gran reporter managed to call out before anyone else could.

"Grand Master Luke Skywalker had asked me to allow Master Solo Fel to track down the whereabouts of six missing Jedi Knights who were specifically assigned to retrieve the Knight known as Raynar Thul from the Killiks' grasp," Dorvan explained, his head perspiring with nervous sweat. He felt like his career might end with this. "So I allowed him to do just that."

"And why would you do that?" Tyrr asked. "Whatever quarrel between any Killik nest and the Chiss Ascendancy is none of the business of the Galactic Alliance, especially when the Jedi Order is involved."

"Well, as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, I felt that it was necessary-"

"You _felt_, Chief Dorvan?" Tyrr rudely interrupted. "You _felt_? From what I understand of the Galactic Alliance, someone in your position should act with more reason and care in running the government and in whatever actions it takes. Twice before, we had Chiefs of State who acted with their hearts rather than their minds, and we had Darth Caedus and Natasi Daala in that. What makes you think that we, the public, can trust you as a leader if we can't rely on you to think more clearly than this?"

Dorvan was at loss for words from that. But it only took a moment for him to pull himself back together from the verbal beat down to continue with, "I felt that it was necessary to belay any conflict, even those outside our space, as the last time we had that, enslaved peoples across the galaxy overthrew their tyrannical rulers and necessitated the Alliance's overall involvement to reestablish order. That way, the entire galaxy, including the Galactic Alliance, would not have to suffer for it. I was simply taking preemptive action in allowing Master Solo Fel to come here so that the Chiss Ascendancy's conflict with the nest of Thuruht would not go out of hand."

Tyrr grimaced. Dorvan's heart soared for a moment, as he felt that he could, in fact, justify what he did. But Tyrr's grimace faded instantly before he asked, "Yet wasn't part of the reason that the Swarm War happened nine years ago was because of the Galactic Alliance and Jedi Order's involvement with the Killiks and the Chiss?"

Dorvan sighed. This was going to be a long press conference.

.

Plagueis used the Force to lift a pile of rubble and debris and reveal a dark hole with a staircase that led underground. He then stepped into the hole and began climbing down the stairs, Ford and Five-U following suit.

Almost an hour later, after having explored the undergrounds of the Palpatine residence, the three of them rounded a corner within the cavern when suddenly, a brilliant red glow lit the cavern, nearly blinding Plagueis and almost overloading Ford and Five-U's photoreceptors. But once their eyes and receptors managed to adjust to the light, they looked down at the source of it to find a dagger the size of an adult human arm a dark yellow, brown-striped hand grip.

"So this is it, huh?" Five-U asked as Plagueis bent down to pick the weapon up. "The Dagger of Mortis. Why is it glowing like that?"

"It is responding to my power," Plagueis said in a trace-like tone, never taking his eyes off the Dagger of Mortis. He breathed, reveling in the sensation that the Dagger radiated throughout the Force. "The feeling it gives... It is insatiable."

Five-U leaned in next to his captain to whisper, "He looks like me before I'm about to blow a load."

"You shut up," Ford quickly responded.

"I never realized it would be this easy to find the Dagger like this," Plagueis said to no one in particular, not even remotely appearing like he heard what the droids behind him just said.

_That is because it is not easy to actually take_, an all-too familiar, gravelly voice echoed in Plagueis's mind, breaking him out of his reverie over the Dagger of Mortis.

Five seconds later, some of the Dagger's glow flowed away from the weapon and began to form something in front of Plagueis. When the manifestation was finished, it held a hideous, snarling visage who Plagueis came to acquaint to treachery in the afterlife.

"Palpatine."


	37. Chapter 37

After Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle dropped out of hyperspace in an unnamed system whose sole celestial body consisted of a distant yellow sun, which was what forced them to drop out of hyperspace due to the gravity well, Onimi began plotting coordinates in the nav computer for their next jump. But just before Jacen could begin piloting the shuttle away from the gravity well, the sensors before him flared to life of thousands of incoming presences dropping out of hyperspace ahead of the shuttle.

Jacen, Onimi, and Nom Anor all looked up to the forward viewport and watched with calm expressions as Chiss Ascendancy Star Destroyers dropped out of hyperspace.

_Daddy?_ the voice of a young girl rang through Jacen's head.

Before Jacen could comprehend who that voice belonged to, an army of voices suddenly replaced the individual girl.

_You wish us death_, the droning collective voice said. _We cannot allow that._

All of a sudden, Jacen's head was wracked with pain, and at the periphery of his awareness, so, too, did Onimi appear to suffer as he desperately clutched at his misshapen head. The two of them collapsed to the deck of the cockpit as Nom Anor watched with an expression devoid of any feeling. Neither of them noticed this at first.

_Join us. Join us_, the collective said in Jacen's mind. No doubt the same was being said in Onimi's head.

"Onimi!" Jacen cried. "Do something! Use your molecule-changing powers or something!"

"I'll try!" Onimi shouted. "But it's so painful!"

"Was it anymore painful than when you were deformed?" Jacen asked.

"No," Onimi said, an undertone of confidence beginning to rise over his agony. "Never. Is it more painful than any of Vergere's teachings?"

"Not even a bit," Jacen replied, a small smirk starting to form on his face.

"Well, then..." Onimi trailed off before he closed his eyes and appeared to concentrate on what appeared to be meditating while laying down, even though he didn't remove his hands from his head.

After a few seconds, the pressure in Jacen's mind eased as he heard that collective voice scream in a pain similar to that of what he and Onimi just suffered. Nom Anor's own voice joined in that screaming for Jacen and Onimi's eyes.

"Nothing like a psychic attack... boosted by an ability to concoct molecules... to amplify to successfully attack an entire hive mind," Onimi said, panting from the pain that still resonated in his mind.

Jacen and Onimi then looked at Nom Anor, who had just stumbled out of the copilot seat and was leaning in pain against the bulkhead at the back of the cockpit near the exit.

"It appears they were trying to assimilate Nommy," Onimi pointed out. "I'll help him get out of it, you take care of that fleet with the spiders."

Nodding, Jacen pushed himself back to his feet with Onimi and turned back to the console, sitting back in the pilot's seat. While Onimi went to purge Nom Anor's mind of the Thuruht hive mind, Jacen pressed a button on the pilot's console that sent an army of nano-spiders toward the Killik-Chiss fleet.

But just when the spiders were a quarter of the way to the fleet, Jacen and Onimi felt a powerful pulse through the Force coming from one of the Star Destroyers. Before they could do anything to counter it, their view of the Killik-Chiss fleet was instantly obstructed when a giant orange wall of fire erupted before them, signifying the premature explosions of the nano-spiders. The impact wave from the unified explosion of the nano-spider army hit the shuttle and sent it spiraling backward and out of Jacen's control. Still, thanks to the internal gravity of the ship, the actual movement of the shuttle's spiral was barely felt by the occupying trio.

When Jacen finally managed to right the shuttle, the first thing he asked Onimi was, "How long before our nano-spider generator can make more of those to take on this fleet?"

Onimi, who had just turned away from Nom Anor, trotted back to the nav chair and looked at the readouts for the aforementioned nano-spider generator. After a moment, he reported, in his most professional tone, "About an hour or so. Our Cilghal maybe a tech witch, but she ain't a goddess there."

Jacen nodded at his friend. Without the nano-spiders, they won't be able to last ten minutes against that fleet, never mind an hour.

"Well, even if we somehow last them for that long," Nom Anor began, waving his hand at the fleet ahead with one hand while rubbing his head with the Sekotan-manufactured other, "it'd be pointless. They'll just stop it the same way they just did."

"Force wave," Jacen hurriedly clarified for his non-Force-sensitive Yuuzhan Vong friend. "But don't worry, I have a plan to counteract this. We're just gonna need to get the hell outta here first."

"Well, then, let's turn around and go into hyperspace," Nom Anor suggested firmly.

"No time," Jacen said. "They could track us even if we can get away from them in time that way."

"Well, is your reality-traveling powers working yet, man?" Onimi asked.

"You bet your ugly ass it is," Jacen said before he furrowed his brow in concentration at the viewport before him. "Now turn off the engines and thrusters while I pay attention."

"Why must you remind me that I'm ugly?" Onimi muttered in a rhetoric sense as he turned off the ship's engines and thrusters as Jacen said.

Then a white flash engulfed them and neither they nor the shuttle were in the system any longer.

When the shuttle and its occupants next manifested, it was parked in an empty spot of what appeared to be a large abandoned warehouse. A female Mon Calamari in mechanics clothes who slept on top of a desk nearby was startled awake and her eyes widened in dull surprise. She then hopped off the desk and walked up toward the section of the Imperial shuttle where the landing ramp would soon appear.

A few moments later, the ramp lowered, and Team Jacen stepped down and into the warehouse proper.

"We're gonna need some better nano-spiders," Jacen said without preempt.

Cilghal's eyes widened with rage, and her gravelly voice became absolutely menacing. "What was wrong with the ones I gave you?!"

"They-they couldn't withstand a Force blast," Jacen said uncertainly, afraid of enduring this reality's Cilghal's wrath.

Cilghal's eyes widened in curiosity. "Really?"

"Yes," Jacen confirmed. "So do you think you can install that mechanism?"

"I think I can," Cilghal said. "Just let me get to work as soon as possible."


	38. Chapter 38

"Hello, my Master," the spirit of Darth Sidious said to Plagueis. "I see that you have cheated death, after all. Such a shame you could not maintain your true form in the process."

"The decision for this body was not mine," Plagueis said, casting a brief glance at Ford before returning his attention to his former apprentice. "But it is one that I can easily adapt to. Now how and why are you here, Sidious?"

Sidious's hideous visage smiled evilly. "Always straight to the point with you. It is a trait I've always admired under your tutelage." His tone became more business-like. "When I was last defeated by Luke Skywalker, he and his friends believed that my soul had been cast into the Netherworld of the Force. But I barely managed to escape such an eternal prison once again, as I reached out for something to help me stay in this realm, and I found this very Dagger. My spirit was encased here, and I would act as its guardian should anyone dare to take it, and in return, I shall one day know freedom again. So, in essence, I am here to stop you from claiming the Dagger of Mortis and stopping Abeloth's inevitable return to the galaxy."

"And that would allow you to roam free?" Plagueis inquired.

"Of course it would," Sidious answered. "It is what the Dagger tells me."

"What the Dagger tells you," Plagueis echoed. "Do you honestly think that is what's going to happen to you after Abeloth rises again? At best, you'll be subservient to her, and at worst, she'll most likely entrap your spirit into her form. And one thing I know about you, when you murdered your own family, when you murdered _me_, is that you despise being subservient to anyone. Now, do you really want to do this?" All while he talked, Plagueis used the Force to shadow his psychic entrance for his former apprentice.

Sidious was silent for a moment before he replied, "Yes. Because subservience to a higher power is greater than entrapment within it."

"Is that why you killed me then?" Plagueis countered. "Because you felt _entrapped_?"

"You were no higher power than I was, and you know it," Sidious growled. "You only deluded yourself into believing that you could be truly immortal, that you could outlast me and take over _my_ Empire. You never intended me as a true apprentice anymore than I did when I recruited Count Dooku into the Sith Order. You only used me as you did with Bon Tapalo, Sifo-Dyas, and the rest. You even admitted so when you asked me to spy on my father and his party's inner workings against Tapalo! You only made me believe that I had more control than I did when I became your apprentice!"

"I admit that I was using you from when I asked you to go against your father all the way to securing your position as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic," Plagueis said. "But can you really say you weren't using me as well?"

Sidious sneered. "Touche, my Master. But none of that matters anymore. What does matter is that I destroy you as I've done all those years ago... and before you try to banish me!." Then he raised his ghostly hands and purple lightning shot out from them, hitting Plagueis square in the chest and sending him flying back several meters to crash into the wall behind him and sliding down to the ground on his backside. In the process, the Dagger of Mortis fell from his grasp, yet his concentration into entering Sidious's mind didn't falter - not by much, anyway.

Before Plagueis could pick himself up, more purple lightning hit him and pinned him against the wall again, painfully electrocuting him as he convulsed in agony.

Between the stream of lightning bolts, Ford and Five-U, who seemed to be ignored by the spirit of Sidious, watched helplessly as Plagueis was dying before their eyes.

"What should we do?" Five-U asked his captain.

Ford hesitated before he answered. "There's nothing we can do," he concluded sullenly. Five-U could tell that his captain was most likely reliving that scene when he watched his Master die under his apprentice all those decades ago.

But several seconds into the electrocution, Plagueis suddenly pushed himself up to his feet, albeit with intense pain going against him, much to Sidious's visible chagrin. The living Sith Lord then slowly raised his hands up against the stream of lightning, face set in determination, and the electrocution stopped enveloping him so that it could be absorbed into his form.

Then Plagueis lowered one hand, allowing the other to continue to absorb the electrocution stream even as Palpatine intensified it, so that he could use his now-free appendage to call the Dagger back into his grasp. The living Sith then closed his eyes and concluded the rest of his psychic journey for Sidious's mind.

.

"All right, so you know how to activate the Force repellent for the spiders?" Cilghal asked Team Jacen as the latter trio prepared to depart back into their shuttle.

They all nodded wordlessly, Jacen and Nom Anor's expressions betraying their embarrassment for not knowing what to do previously while Onimi offered a more apathetic expression.

"Good," Cilghal said. "Now the next time you three idiots come back here, I wanna here that you finally completed the mission, okay? 'Cause I don't wanna explain for the _sixth time_ how to work that Force repellent!"

"You can count on us, Cilghal!" Jacen exclaimed, raising his arms up in defense. "We'll be fine!"

"Okay. Now get the hell outta here," Cilghal said.

The three of them nodded again and turned back to the shuttle, whose boarding ramp was already down. Onimi went in first, then Nom Anor, and Jacen was the last one aboard to close the ramp up. A few minutes later, the Imperial shuttle disappeared in a bright, white flash.


	39. Chapter 39

When Plagueis's psychic form manifested, he found that he was now once again a Muun dressed in fine black robes, standing within the campus of Theed University, outside the library of the Legislative Youth Program headquarters building, so many years ago. Except where the skies overhead were blue and clear then, nothing but dark gray shadowed Naboo's heavens, and there was no one else walking around the campus.

No one else except for the seventeen-year-old, pleasant-faced redhead human male standing across from Plagueis, just as he had all those decades ago. And again, where young Palpatine was an otherwise average teenager who didn't have any higher ambitions in life other than to rebel against his tyrannical father's wishes, here, Palpatine, in spite of the deceit provided by his youthful appearance here, was clearly a very experienced Sith Lord who had every intention of rising above the power that his former Master once had.

"This is where it all began," Palpatine said with a sneer. "And this is where it will all end." Suddenly, the hilt of a lightsaber appeared in his right hand, as if it dropped from his sleeve, and a glowing crimson blade appeared. "Any last words, my Master?"

"No," Plagueis said simply.

Palpatine grinned. "So straightforward." Then, with a fierce howl, the younger Sith leaped across the expanse between himself and his former Master and came down to clash blades against the Muun.

The two of them then sparred back and forth for several moments, neither of them gaining nor losing ground, with Plagueis maintaining his typical, cool and calm attitude while his former apprentice allowed his rage and hatred act as his fuel in the fight. The latter growled and roared every so often whenever his frustration over not being able to defeat Plagueis so easily got the better of him, yet Plagueis himself, for all his collected veneer, was beginning to sink into frustration himself. Even though Palpatine grew in power since his Master died and managed to sustain that power after both of his deaths, Plagueis was still the most masterful against his apprentice, and they both knew it.

However, he was fighting in Palpatine's mind, and therein lay Plagueis's disadvantage.

So focused was he against Palpatine, Plagueis didn't even notice that the scene around him had inexplicably changed until nearly half a minute into their fight. When he did notice that change, the minor distraction caused him to lose some concentration against his one-time pupil as the latter parried the former's saber out of the way, leaving the Muun wide open for an open strike. But Plagueis managed to kick Palpatine in the sternum and then flip a couple meters away from him.

They were now over the bridge on Chandrila where Plagueis confirmed that Palpatine was Force-sensitive. But just as quickly as that thought came, it quickly came to an end as Palpatine charged with more aggressive strikes, forcing Plagueis to lose ground as he was driven back to the opposite end of the bridge, where only darkness existed. It only took about ten seconds for Palpatine to lock blades with Plagueis and then Force-shove him toward the darkness of the bridge. But the Muun almost simultaneously used the Force to drive his treacherous student toward him, automatically changing the scene once again.

The biting chill of Mygeeto's freezing climate meant very little to the dueling Sith, whose hatred for each other warmed them more than the heat of their lightsabers ever could. Plagueis turned his fall from the previous scenery into a backward roll that he landed on his feet in a crouch while Palpatine collapsed prone in the snow. But the human then flipped himself through the air and came down like a rock toward Plagueis. Again, they clashed blades for many moments before Plagueis found an opening and sent a Force wave against Palpatine, throwing him back to the other side of the mountaintop they were fighting on. The blow managed to knock Palpatine straight over the edge and sent him plummeting to the icy ground below before the scene around Plagueis changed yet again.

Now in Plagueis's lab within his sanctuary at Aborah, Palpatine, now a man roughly in his thirties, turned his head-on fall into a forward flip that allowed him to land in a crouch a few meters from Plagueis. The Muun was the one who charged his opponent this time, yet still not losing his patience or level-headed veneer. Palpatine, who sprung up to his full height from the crouch, was now being driven back toward the containment tube where the comatose wannabe Sith, Darth Venamis, had been encased as part of Plagueis's experiments to control midi-chlorians and make himself into an immortal. It wasn't long before Palpatine had been back up against the containment tube and ducked beneath his former Master's decapitating swing, cutting a deep furrow through the tube. Fluids gushed out and enveloped the human Sith, accidentally driving him forward to trip Plagueis before using the Force to send the Muun flying to the other end of the room and crash against a wall.

Before Plagueis could hit the floor of his own lab, the scene shifted again, and the Muun now found himself falling at a much slower pace to the forest ground below, where Palpatine was now rocketing from to continue their duel. Plagueis met his former apprentice's blade with his own again, and they continued to clash until their feet hit the ground, and by then, Plagueis managed to get past Palpatine's defenses and used his free hand to knock his opponent's lightsaber out of his hand, his strength momentarily heightened by the Force. The now-deactivated blade went sailing off, and Palpatine jumped after it, barely avoiding a strike that would have bisected him by the waist, and the human allowed the low gravity of the world - Buoyant, as Plagueis remembered it as he now had some space it observe his surroundings - to carry him toward the lightsaber.

Palpatine caught the hilt, activated it, and just as promptly sent it spinning back toward Plagueis, blade still active, in an arc meant to end his former Master. But before the latter could easily bat it away, the scene yet again changed, and Plagueis found that they were in the apartment where Darth Sidious, now middle-aged before him, had outright murdered him in his sleep. The saber that was meters away from him back on Buoyant was now sizzling against his own, with Palpatine's hands clasped firmly around his own hilt.

"As I said, my Master," Palpatine gritted through his teeth, "this is where it all ends."

Not saying a word himself, Plagueis pushed back against his former apprentice and the two continued to duel as they have for the past few minutes. This time, however, they were gaining and losing ground interchangeably at various intervals, with no pattern, no rhyme or reason to their movements other than defending and attacking with what they've learned from all their decades of training and knowledge. This was, Plagueis had no doubt about, the end; but here, Lord Sidious would lose, not him.

Finally, as Plagueis was being backed up against the force of his opponent's blows, he tripped backward against a caf table and collapsed on top of it. Palpatine swung his lightsaber down to impale his former Master, but the latter quickly rolled out of the way and then leaped across the room. Upon landing on his feet, he swiftly turned around and, with his free hand, sent an arcing stream of purple lightning against Palpatine. The human caught it easily on his lightsaber, but then Plagueis did something his apprentice didn't think he could do.

He turned up the voltage.

Palpatine now bared his teeth in both determination and agony as Plagueis's lightning was beginning to overwhelm both his lightsaber's defense against it and with his own Force defense against it. After almost half a minute, Palpatine finally collapsed to his knees and his lightsaber, deactivated, clattered away from his hands. The torture of the lightning completely enveloped him as he screamed from the top of his lungs. His visage deformed into the hideous apparition that Plagueis saw when his apprentice was a ghost back in the real world.

But then...

Instead of being enveloped by the lightning, Palpatine began _absorbing_ it into his being, much to Plagueis's surprise. Cutting off the stream, he watched as Palpatine bared a horrific smile before he raised both hands and sent more lightning back toward his Master, shouting in joy and glee. Plagueis raised his saber up in defense, but found that neither his lightsaber nor his own Force defenses could protect him from the initial _second_ of this reprisal.

"Power!" Palpatine shouted. "Unlimited _power_!" The lightning only increased in intensity as Palpatine enunciated that last word.

For just a moment, Plagueis believed that this would be the end of him; that once again, here, where his treacherous pupil had killed him, he would be defeated again, and that there would be no coming back.

But that was when, against the power that Palpatine had over his own mind, Plagueis himself overcame it through sheer will, and the power of the Force, so that he could shift the scene.

"What?!" Palpatine screamed as he found himself carried by Darth Vader toward the edge of the bridge of his throne room of the second Death Star. As had happened all those years ago, Palpatine couldn't stop his control of the lightning, and he was too late to act as he then found himself plummeting to one of the bright cores of the Death Star, screaming all the way down in total helplessness. And when he finally exploded in a dark side flash, the next thing he knew, he was chained against the unfathomable depths of eternity.

With impotent rage, Palpatine shouted for all it was worth, but it didn't carry an iota of power through the Force.

He was truly gone now.


	40. Chapter 40

Ford and Five-U watched in awkward silence as Plagueis simply stood still, eyes closed for several minutes with absolutely no expression on his face. Only the droids' sensors in their photoreceptors could tell them that he was still breathing. As for Sidious's spirit, he had disappeared back into the Dagger of Mortis once Plagueis closed his eyes.

"What do you think's going on?" Five-U asked his captain.

"My guess is some kind of internal battle between them that's going on in the Force right now," Ford answered.

Five-U was silent for a moment before he spoke. "I can never understand this supernatural Force thing, you know."

"There is a science behind it, in case you forgot," Ford said. "I worked with this guy for three and a half decades on scientific research regarding midi-chlorians so that he could be immortal."

"Right, the symbionts that tie living beings with the Force, got it," Five-U said. "So how do you know when this internal battle is going to end?"

"I don't," Ford said.

"So we could pretty much be standing here until that body of his dies of hunger and/or dehydration, right?" Five-U inquired.

"That could very well be the case," Ford said neutrally.

"So why the hell are we even still standing here, wasting time?" Five-U asked.

Before Ford could reply, Plagueis suddenly moved and looked back at the droids before lowering his eyes back upon the Dagger of Mortis in his hands.

"That's why," Ford answered smugly. He then spoke to Plagueis. "Are you all right, my Master?"

"Better than all right, Ford," Plagueis said, momentarily lifting his eyes from the Dagger to regard the droids with a maniacal grin on his face. "I have finally gained vengeance on my apprentice for what he did to me." He appeared almost euphoric over having defeated his former apprentice. He looked back with intensity upon the weapon in his hands before looking back up to the droids. "We must go. The Dagger has shown me where I am to finally end Abeloth." With that, he turned back the way he and the droids came, and the latter two followed him instantly.

.

When Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle next appeared from technowitch Cilghal's reality, the three of them found, via their sensors, that they were in the exact same system that they left when it seemed that they couldn't beat the Killik-Chiss fleet. Now that fleet was absent, most likely having disappeared through hyperspace to continue their conquest of the galaxy.

Jacen turned the ship around to the general direction that the enemy fleet could have gone. "Onimi, can you figure out where the Killiks and Chiss could have gone?"

After a few moments, Onimi looked back up to Jacen with defeat in his voice. "No. We must have been gone too long."

"Damn," Jacen muttered, hanging his head against the console.

"So much for learning about that Force-repellent on the nano-spiders," Onimi commented dryly.

Then Jacen perked up with widened eyes before looking over to the Yuuzhan Vong next to him. "Wait, Nommy, you were part of the Killik hive mind for a few moments, right?"

Nom Anor nodded. "Yes, why?"

"Then if you were part of it even for a brief while, then you must have known where they would have went next, right?" Jacen asked.

Nom Anor's eyes widened in realization. "Yes, I did! And now that you brought it up, I'm starting to remember." He then put a hand to his face as he tried to recall.

"Think, Nommy, think!" Jacen said. "Where could they have gone?"

Then Nom Anor looked worried as he looked back at Jacen. "Coruscant."

"Straight for the heart of the Galactic Alliance?" Onimi asked in disbelief. "Wouldn't it be smarter for them to attack other planets in and around their space first to gather up resources _before_ they just go in, guns blazing, for the seat of the government?"

Nom Anor shook his head. "Not with what they can do now. You saw how easily they got into my head, and they nearly got the both of you, too! Somehow, I doubt assimilating billions, maybe even trillions, of people will be that difficult for the Killiks and their Joiners just through telepathy."

"Well, that's a comforting thought, no pun intended," Onimi said sarcastically.

"How'd they get that kind of power?" Jacen said. "How are they not relying on Killik pheromones anymore?"

"They're still relying on the pheromones," Nom Anor explained. "In fact, they used them to assimilate the Chiss in the Csilla system. But now their queen has managed to summon enough telepathic power to instantly bring three _trillion_ people under the mind of Thuruht."

"Three trillion?" Jacen asked in disbelief. "If she has _that_ kind of power, then why was it so hard for her to assimilate me and Onimi?"

"I don't know exactly," Nom Anor said. "But I think it had something to do with Onimi's own telepathic abilities, and a moment of weakness on the part of their queen."

"Weakness?" Jacen inquired. Then it occurred to him. The voice of a little girl saying, _Daddy_, in his head just before Thuruht took over Nom Anor's mind and tried to take over his and Onimi's minds.

"Yes, I don't know what caused it exactly," Nom Anor said.

"It's fine," Jacen said hurriedly. "We just need to get to Coruscant immediately."

"We won't make it in time!" Nom Anor exclaimed. "When we get there, the Killiks will be stronger than ever, with the entire Coruscant Defense Force, and maybe the entire Galactic Alliance Defense Force, within their hive mind! Not only will they have greater numbers, but strong telepathic and Force abilities. You and Onimi won't be able to counter _that_!"

Jacen was silent for a moment before he said, "You're absolutely right. Which is why we're gonna have to bring down the entire hive mind."

"What are we gonna do even if you could withstand that power?" Nom Anor asked. "We won't have enough nano-spiders against them!"

"We won't have to rely on them," Jacen countered. "We need something to attack their telepathy and bring their entire hive mind down."

"What do you suggest then?" Nom Anor asked.

Jacen then sat back in his chair and thought about it, putting his right thumb and forefinger beneath his chin. A couple moments later, he snapped his fingers in realization. "I got it!" He looked at both Onimi and Nom Anor. "We got to the Jedi Order!"

"And how are they going to help us?" Onimi asked.

"Mind-meld," Jacen said. "Onimi, plot us some coordinates for Shedu Maad. We're gonna take down the Killiks."


	41. Chapter 41

"Where are we going now, Ship?" Velk asked as the Sith Meditation Sphere piloted him out of the Korriban system's gravity well and sped into hyperspace.

_To the Maw_, Ship answered.

"Why?" Velk inquired. "Shouldn't we continue with the investigation back on Korriban?"

_That is now a secondary concern_, Ship replied.

Velk couldn't help but roll his eyes. He should have been leading Ship, not the other way around. "To what?"

_The fate of the galaxy_.

.

Dorvan sighed in sadness as he, sitting in his office desk, sifted through all the death threats sent by Coruscanti citizens and proposals for votes of no confidence by Galactic Alliance politicians for that Jaina Solo Fel scandal on his datapad. He never realized that such a relatively small thing such as this, even if it did violate the Jedi ban, could be blown up so out of proportion.

He was about to close up his datapad when the door to his office opened up and his Chief of Security, a male Rodian named Horass, and two fair-skinned male humans walked in.

"Chief Dorvan, we must get you to the underground bunker immediately," Horass said.

Not arguing with the Rodian, Dorvan stood up and allowed himself to be led by the three security guards out of his office, turning off his datapad and putting it back into his pocket again. "What's going on?" he asked as they were joined by Dorvan's Chief of Staff, the female Twi'lek Desha Lor, toward the turbolift down the hall.

"An invasion for Coruscant by the Chiss Ascendancy," Horass reported. "Don't worry, sir, the Defense Force will do everything in their power to-"

The Rodian was cut off from saying anything else as the five of them, who were halfway to the elevator, suddenly collapsed prone to the floor, grabbing their heads in agony.

When the pain stopped, they were part of Thuruht.

Along with everyone else in the Coruscant system.

.

Having just returned to Shedu Maad's Jedi Temple, the eleven remaining Jedi Masters walked at a brisk pace for the Council room to discuss their next move against Thuruht when they were intercepted by a worried-looking young human male Jedi Knight.

"Grand Master Hamner, you must see this!" the Knight said as he took out a datapad from his belt and activated it, showing the expressionless face of who Hamner recognized was a redhead version of Amelia Solo, Han and Leia's adopted daughter, standing in the background of the bridge of a Star Destroyer.

"This is a message to all who are not part of us yet," the girl said in a flat yet menacing monotone. "We, the Killik nest of Thuruht, now rule this galaxy. We have taken over not only the Chiss Ascendancy, the reigning power of what you all deem the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, but we have also inducted your primary government, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, into our collective will.

"Make no mistake, we will come for all who remain as individuals in the galaxy, and we will make you part of us. We send this message out not to frighten or threaten, but as an invitation. We invite you to join us of your own free will, for it will be the last act that any of you will be able to accomplish on your own. All those who would dare oppose us will either be part of us, one way or the other, or they will be destroyed as we see fit.

"In any case, for those who would dare to oppose us, we offer you this comfort: this is for your own good, for it will save this galaxy from utter chaos and destruction, not only from the troubles caused by organizations and governments run by pathetically flawed individuals, but from the one who came so close to destroying your galaxy mere months ago: the entity known as Abeloth, who was known to have caused the near-destruction of Coruscant during the most recent battle between the Jedi and the Sith.

"Before you do try to wage war against us, take note that we have not caused any destruction when we took the Ascendancy and the Alliance. Hence, we feel that you should not only know that we come in peace, but you should also keep in mind that resistance is futile."

With that, the broadcast ended as the screen cut to black.

Complete and total silence permeated the hall that led to the Jedi Council room. Other Jedi who had been walking through the corridors nearby had all stood still and maintained that silence.

"We're doomed, aren't we, Master?" the Jedi Knight who showed Hamner and the others the broadcast asked in a hopeless tone.

Hamner hesitated before he replied. "Not if we can help it," he said with half-hearted determination in his voice.

.

Isolated in her private bedchambers, Hapan Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo allowed the tears to flow freely from her eyes as she grieved for her little Allana. With her datapad, which just showed her the speech that her daughter delivered for the Killiks, plopped on her side, Tenel Ka couldn't help but wonder how this could possibly happen.

She hadn't felt this kind of pain since she realized that Jacen had fallen to the dark side of the Force all those years ago. How could she have been so blind to that then? How could she have not felt Allana join the Killik hive mind now? Was there something wrong with her connection to the Force? Did being Queen Mother somehow hamper her ability to feel the fates of those closest to her?

Tenel Ka couldn't think straight; her thoughts were in such turmoil and disarray, she feared she might lose the composure expected of her as Queen Mother even under times of great duress. She felt like an unstable hyperdrive core ready to blow and take out the ship that it served. If one more thing happened to her... Never, since Jacen - Jacen, not Caedus - had died during the Yuuzhan Vong War, did Tenel Ka feel this way. Amidst all the pain and suffering she was undergoing right now, Tenel Ka couldn't help but wish that she had Yuuzhan Vong-loyal Hapan pirates that she could take her frustrations out on, just like when Jacen died by the Yuuzhan Vong's hands.

How could anyone expect her to remain cool and level-headed at this time when it was her own _daughter_ who had just represented the enemy?


	42. Chapter 42

The first thing that Plagueis said when the _Faux Harla_ and Ford's Mindabaal dropped out of hyperspace for the final time in the Maw was, "There it is."

Up ahead was a brown, barren planet with no distinct features. Plagueis then piloted the _Harla_ toward that world and the Mindabaal followed suit.

A few minutes later, both ships landed on the shore of a beach nearby an inactive volcano. After their pilots powered down the vessels, exited them, and closed and locked them up, they observed their surroundings. There was nothing new to find that they couldn't see from a few light years from orbit; just a desolated jungle with leafless, rotting trees, and not even an insect to represent fauna anywhere.

Plagueis took out the Dagger of Mortis from within his Jedi robes and it glowed red for a moment before it returned to its natural gleaming shine. "That way," the Sith pointed with the Dagger toward the dead jungle before he marched in its direction. The droids wordlessly tailed him.

Roughly half an hour passed before the three of them came to an overgrown courtyard within the now-in-name-only jungle, where they stopped on the wave of Plagueis's Dagger-wielding hand. In the center of that courtyard was a waterless fountain, but to Plagueis, it was so much more.

He could feel the power of the dark side emanating here, albeit diluted, as if it were an aftertaste. For a moment, he was entranced in a vision from the Force that showed him just how powerful the dark side flowed here when this fountain was filled with water. It was a nexus of energy, which promised any dark sider, Sith or otherwise, unimaginable strength in the Force. Now, as the vision ended, Plagueis was brought back to the depressing reality that all that was left was a mere iota of what it once held and promised.

"What is this place, Lord Plagueis?" Ford asked.

Before Plagueis could answer, he froze for a moment before looking up to the skies of the planet.

"What is it?" Five-U asked.

Instead of responding, Plagueis remained silent, still not taking his gaze away from the blue skies above. The droids looked at each other in silent askance, and they simply shrugged before they joined Plagueis in looking to the sky.

It wasn't long before a brown ship that looked like a giant eyeball with wings appeared in the air above the trio and steadily lowered itself behind them. Plagueis, Ford, and Five-U all turned to face the arriving vessel, which then unfurled a section of its hull on one of its sides to lower to the ground. A young human male, who Plagueis felt was a Sith, stepped out to face him. As the other Sith approached the trio, the eyeball-shaped ship raised the makeshift-ramp section of itself to rejoin as part of its hull again. The droids, meanwhile, retreated behind Plagueis.

The newly-arrived Sith bore a hateful look for Plagueis. "So, you're the one who's gonna kill Abeloth, eh?" he asked when he stopped a few meters from the three of them. "Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, the bastard who took Vestara away from me." The young Sith unhooked and activated his crimson-bladed lightsaber, leveling it for Plagueis. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

Plagueis regarded the threatening lightsaber in front of him with nothing more than a slightly-amused smirk before looking back up with an unreadable expression at the opposing Sith. "Putting aside the fact that I'm the one that the Force destined to permanently end Abeloth, perhaps a reason you shouldn't kill me is because I'm not Ben Skywalker."

"Ha!" the other Sith forced out of sarcasm. "Like I'm stupid enough to believe that."

"Well, given your brain activity, according to my neurosensors," Five-U said from behind Plagueis, "something tells me that I doubt you can do basic multiplication tables, never mind not fall for an obvious lie."

The other Sith spared Five-U a scornful look before returning his attention to Plagueis.

"If you don't believe me," Plagueis said, ignoring Five-U's remark, "check for yourself. Use the Force, and you'll know I'm telling the truth."

The other Sith hesitated, but then Plagueis could feel his presence reach out for him through the Force. After a moment, the unknown Sith deactivated his lightsaber and hooked it back to his belt. "I wish I could have killed Skywalker first," he muttered like a spoiled child who didn't get any candy.

_We're not here to fulfill your wishes, Velk_, a mysterious masculine voice that Plagueis could hear said. _Darth Plagueis here is to kill Abeloth. I only brought you along because I wanted, what you'd call, a front row seat for the event_.

The other Sith - Velk, apparently - turned back to regard the ship. "Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically.

"Was it the ship who just spoke to us?" Plagueis asked Velk.

Velk turned back to the other Sith with a smug expression. "It's a Sith Meditation Sphere, for your information," he explained, his tone dripping with arrogance for knowing something about the Sith that Plagueis didn't. "It's a living vessel programmed for training Sith."

"Fascinating," Plagueis said, overlooking Velk to regard Ship. "Where did you come from?" he asked the Sphere.

_Ziost_, Ship replied. _I was uncovered by the very Jedi whose body you inhabit, actually_.

"I see," Plagueis said. "I have heard of Ziost, I just never had the opportunity to actually visit during my first life."

_You should stop by_, Ship responded. _It's a very nice place for Sith; quiet, isolated, enveloped in the dark side. You'd love it_.

"I think I would," Plagueis nodded.

_Oh, and by the way_, Ship continued, _it's nice to finally meet a _true_ Sith for a change_.

Velk swiveled around to regard Ship angrily. "Say that one more time," he intoned.

Before Ship could say anything, Velk froze in place as a blue lightsaber blade pierced him from behind to extend out through his chest. The blade then deactivated and Velk dropped dead to the ground, leaving Plagueis standing there as he hooked the deactivated hilt back to his belt.

_It's nice to finally meet a true Sith for a change_, Ship repeated.


	43. Chapter 43

On Bastion, Imperial Head of State Vitor Reige walked into the Capital Building's Moff Meeting Room with his personal aide Ashik trailing behind him. He looked around the circular table that served as the avenue of their latest meeting and saw that all twelve of them - including that snake, Drikl Lecersen, and that witch, Natasi Daala - were present and glaring angrily at him, as if the subject of their discussion was all his fault.

Repressing a frustrated sigh, Reige sat down in the seat reserved for him and folded his hands on the table. "Does anyone have any ideas as to how we can defend ourselves against the Killiks?" he asked without preamble.

"We need to mobilize immediately," Daala said in a straightforward tone. "We need to strike them hard and fast in the Coruscant system when they least expect it; when they're still cooling down from taking over the GA. I don't see why we're sitting here, discussing this."

"Maybe you forgot, Admiral," Tol Getelles interjected, "that the Killiks are now able to simply reach out to the minds of their enemies and simply take them over! Even if we were to just attack them like that, they'll just convert us to their side!"

"Which is why we're discussing this," Reige concluded. "We need to make sure that we're all safe from the Killik hive mind itself, if not their forces. So, again, any ideas?"

Everyone remained dead silent for a while before Porrak Vansyn said, "I say we do what the Yuuzhan Vong did and get the hell outta this galaxy while we still have a chance!"

"And leave everyone else to fall to the Killiks' hive mind, Moff Vansyn?" Reige retorted. "I don't think so."

"Well, I don't see you offering any ideas, Head of State!" Calron the Younger voiced. "I agree with Moff Vansyn. I think we have no other choice but to leave this galaxy and leave the rest to rot!"

Reige glared at Calron. "Even if I agreed to such a cowardly act," he said, "we certainly don't have the resources to move to the nearest galaxy, or sustain ourselves or our descendents for the trip. No, we must stand our ground, we can't let a bunch of bugs take our territory, so we have to come up with some kind of defense plan."

"You're wasting your time and ours, Reige," Lecersen said. "Any battle plan you can come up with will be all for naught; once those Killiks and their Joiners drop out of hyperspace in this system, before we can even launch a single laser for them, we'll all be part of their hive mind-" He snapped his fingers. "-just like that."

"And you'll be wasting your time if you think you can leave this galaxy and hope to live long after that," Reige said. "The Yuuzhan Vong got lucky when they left their galaxy; how much you wanna bet you'll achieve that same luck, even for any descendents who might live on the off-chance that such a chicken way would actually work?"

Lecersen and the Moffs who were behind the idea of running all opened their mouths, but then just as promptly closed them when they realized that couldn't muster an argument to that point.

"Then we're all doomed," Vansyn said in a self-defeating tone.

Reige looked at him again. "Not yet. And that's all that matters."

.

After being granted permission by Kenth Hamner to land their Imperial shuttle in the Jedi Temple's hangar bay on Shedu Maad minutes earlier, Team Jacen marched briskly for the Council room. They ignored all the looks of surprise and shock and the resultant stares from Jedi Knights and apprentices that came their way in the Temple's corridors, but they ignored them. When they got there, Jacen opened the door and he and his Yuuzhan Vong friends walked in to meet the gazes of expectant Jedi Masters.

"Solo," Hamner said, "I've already informed this Council about your attendance here. I assume you came here to offer a solution to this new Killik problem?"

"We have," Jacen nodded.

"Then spill it," Hamner demanded.

"A mind-meld attack against Thuruht," Jacen replied simply.

"Mind-meld attack?" Hamner asked incredulously. "Solo, we don't have enough Jedi in the entire _Order_ to attempt something like that against the Killiks, especially not with the strength in numbers that they now have in forces and in their hive mind!"

"I didn't realize the Jedi were concerned with numbers when they had the Force, Master Hamner," Jacen said.

"And the Killiks don't?" Hamner retorted. "They have eight Jedi on their side! Eight powerful Jedi that have enhanced the power of their hive mind and allowed them to take over the Galactic Alliance in a matter of _seconds_! We can't fight that!"

"Not unless you could enhance the strength of the mind-meld, right?" Jacen asked.

"You have something that could help us out with that, Solo?" Hamner inquired.

"My friend, Onimi, who is only one of two Yuuzhan Vong to have achieved a link with the Force before his species were carried away on Zonama Sekot," Jacen said, waving to the aforementioned Yuuzhan Vong. "Don't worry about the other Yuuzhan Vong, she's dead. Anyway, link Onimi up to the mind-meld and he'll be able to boost it up to outdo the Killiks' hive mind."

"How can you do that?" Cilghal asked the deformed Yuuzhan Vong.

"I can fashion molecules that can heighten my mind-controlling powers-" Onimi began to explain.

"Mind-control?" Hamner interrupted. "Solo, are you crazy? I'm not about to compromise the Jedi Order to this Vong!"

Onimi growled at Hamner's derogatory remark, but Jacen restrained him by placing his arm before his friend's chest. The only audible reaction to come from Nom Anor regarding Hamner's exclamation was a sneer.

"I assure you, Master Hamner," Jacen said, "we only offer you our cooperation. Without us, particularly without Onimi, you may not win against the Killiks this time."

Hamner looked from Jacen to Onimi. "How could I trust you?" he asked the deformed Yuuzhan Vong.

"Honestly?" Onimi asked. "You can't. But you really have no other choice." He couldn't help but smirk for getting payback on Hamner for calling him a Vong.

Again, Hamner sighed. "Fine. You win. We'll do it your way, Solo."

.

_What does the Dagger tell you to do now?_ Ship asked Plagueis.

Instead of answering, the Sith looked back at the Dagger of Mortis still in hand and he turned back around to face the droids. The Dagger glowed red again and Plagueis began walking past Ford and Five-U for the fountain. Once he reached the dry fountain, he stepped in and continued for its center, where he stopped.

Five seconds later, the Dagger's red glow exploded to encompass the entirety of Plagueis's vision.

When Plagueis opened his eyes from the blinding red flash, he looked around and found that he was standing in a blank, white expanse of nothingness in his Muun body, the Dagger still in his hand. This time, though, it lacked any kind of glow.

And it was now silent to him.


	44. Chapter 44

A few light years away from Shedu Maad, what remained of the Jedi Order - a few hundred StealthX fighters - prepared to leave the Maad system via hyperspace. Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle spearheaded the exodus of the fleet, for not only would Onimi act as the ultimate link in the enhanced mind-meld against the Killiks, but Jacen's own special Force abilities would be able to cut the travel time significantly; thus, Thuruht can be defeated much sooner.

"All units, report in," Grand Master Hamner said over the Jedi fleet comm.

One by one, for the next minute or two, all of the Jedi reported in. Jacen was the last one to report for his team.

"All units," Hamner said once the reports concluded, "let's go."

With that, the entire fleet disappeared into hyperspace.

.

Beyond shadows, Plagueis searched all throughout the whiteness of his surroundings to find some trace of Abeloth.

It didn't take him long.

A grey tentacle suddenly manifested itself out from the nothingness before him and struck. Before Plagueis could react, the Dagger of Mortis was knocked out of his hand, tumbling away from his reach. He reached out to the Force to retrieve it, but the tentacle curled up and punched him the chest, sending him flying back to crash against the semi-solid surface that he was just standing on.

The Sith Lord looked up and found that the tentacle was actually growing a body. Momentarily ignoring it, he looked off to the side to find the Dagger, but found that it was nowhere to be found. Redirecting his gaze back to the tentacle, he saw a hideous gray tentacled creature lacking all but the humanoid aspects of a mouth and eyes. That mouth and those eyes, however, were even more monstrous sights to behold. The mouth was wide enough to reach the beings ears, if she had any, and her eyes were deep wells of piercing starlight.

"Balance will never be maintained," the creature, Abeloth, said with an evil smile. Plagueis could see sharp, needle-like teeth protruding. "Chaos will never be stopped."

She then lashed out at Plagueis with a tentacle again.

.

_Soon_, Thuruht thought, _we will be strong enough to defeat Abeloth!_

Aligning their Galactic Alliance capital vessels in various directions across the galaxy from the Coruscant system in order to spread their hive mind, Thuruht was ready to extend their reach from the heart of the galaxy to the rest of its body. In a few moments, they would disappear into hyperspace, and there would be nothing to stop them.

All of their actions, however, momentarily ceased at the sight of an Imperial shuttle dropping out of hyperspace from the direction of the Hapes Consortium. The Killiks and Joiners of the hive mind didn't collectively balk at the sight of a single vessel going against them, for it would have provided mild amusement for Thuruht at least, but instead, they balked at the presence of the invisible Jedi fleet led by the shuttle.

_No matter_, Thuruht thought. _They will be assimilated just the same_.

But before Thuruht could allow their queen, ThurSolo, to envelope the Jedi instantly into their hive mind, every member of the collective experienced a painful psychic attack that forced them to collapse to the decks of their vessels.

Moments passed before the wave passed, and all Galactic Alliance members of the hive mind were free again.

Now realizing how many members they just lost to the enemy, the Killiks and their remaining Joiners in the Chiss and the Jedi they already had responded just as quickly as the individual Alliance soldiers in their own vessels did. Battle stations on both sides were manned immediately, and it didn't take long before all types of projectiles - lasers, charric bolts, proton torpedoes, concussion missiles, etc. - were fired all throughout the system.

The entirety of the Coruscant system devolved completely into a war zone.

.

"Solo!" Hamner's voice called over Team Jacen's comm. "Why didn't the attack cripple the hive mind completely?"

"I don't know!" Jacen, in the pilot chair of his shuttle, responded almost instantly. "Maybe the attack wasn't strong enough? Maybe there was some resistance from the hive mind, perhaps from their queen."

"Can we try again?" Hamner asked.

"We could," Jacen said. "But somehow, I doubt we can do that. It would take too long to muster that kind of power again, and we'll be caught in the crossfire of this battle soon enough."

"Which is why we can't use the nano-spiders, again," Nom Anor said from the copilot seat. "We risk hitting Alliance members."

Jacen nodded at his friend. "Right." He turned back to the comm to address Hamner. "So now we have no choice but to fight."

"We're too low in numbers, Solo!" Hamner argued. "We'll be wiped out."

"We have the Force," Jacen said. "That's all the matters." He then stared intently out at the battlefield that was the Coruscant system.

"So what's our plan?" Nom Anor asked.

"There's one way we can completely cripple the hive mind, for sure," Jacen said. "It's worked before on the Gorog."

"Eliminate the queen," Hamner concluded.

"My team and I will locate the queen, get in to wherever she is, and we'll kill her," Jacen reported to the Grand Master.

"How do you intend to find her?" Hamner asked.

"Trust me, I have an idea," Jacen said.

The thought of that little girl's voice in his mind saying, _Daddy_, was the genesis of that idea.

.

Plagueis rolled out of the eye of the incoming tentacle and unleashed a Force wave in Abeloth's direction powerful enough to disintegrate an entire being. Instead of doing that, however, the blow only sent Abeloth staggering back a few paces, and the entity's vicious smile greatly contrasted with Plagueis's mix of determination and fear.

Abeloth lashed out with two tentacles this time, and Plagueis immediately countered by sending arcing bolts of purple lightning with both hands. The electricity rappelled the tentacles away from his general direction, causing Abeloth to screech for a horrifying scream in pain. Her lapse of agony allowed Plagueis to leap to his feet and charge the wounded creature.

When he neared her, though, she seemed to recover almost spontaneously from what she just suffered and struck out the same two tentacles again. They wrapped around Plagueis's arms in a matter of two seconds and they pulled him in closer to the hideous entity before him. He struggled in her grasp, and she only laughed with an amused mirth.

Plagueis sent another two jolts of electricity into her being, causing her to scream again as purple electricity danced all around her form. Her tentacles' grasp on the Sith Lord slackened slightly, allowing Plagueis enough personal space to launch a Force-assisted kick into Abeloth's torso. The electricity ceased to torture her as she was flung back across the surface of the plane upon which she and Plagueis fought.

She landed in a crouch, and when she looked up, Plagueis approached with his hands outstretched to her, sending more purple lightning in the process. But then Abeloth simply outstretched her tentacles in the direction, and allowed herself to absorb the electricity as fuel rather than torment. She closed her eyes and relished in the power she was now receiving.

Widening his eyes, Plagueis ceased the dual current he was giving his godlike foe, and when he did, her well-like eyes opened up, her face contorting into a mimicry of disappointment.

"Do you really think you are the only one to learn that trick?" Abeloth retorted.

She then leaped to her full height and charged with an a shrill, menacing roar.

.

Jacen expertly dodged and weaved his shuttle all throughout the battlefield of the Coruscant system, avoiding both friendly and enemy fire, as well as debris from destroyed ships on both sides, all as he made for the ship where he pinpointed the location of the queen of the Thuruht hive mind: a Chiss Star Destroyer in the center of the Killik fleet.

Remembering the girl's voice that called him "Daddy," he had summoned a Force ability that allowed him to trace the origin of that voice in his head back to where it was now in the Force; it was similar to how some certain akk dogs were trained to sniff out a being's scent on a piece of cloth or any variant that once belonged to that being. It only took him half a minute, and once he had finished, he maneuvered his way into the rest of the battle with the Jedi fleet.

Hamner already commed the Galactic Alliance fleet, informing the high command of the Jedi Order's involvement in this last ditch effort to defeat the Killiks, so Alliance forces made no deliberate attack on any StealthXs they might happen to catch in the battle or Jacen's shuttle. Now all Jacen had to do was get to that Star Destroyer.

A Star Destroyer that was heavily defended by various other Chiss vessels, manned by Killiks and Chiss Joiners alike, whether they be clawcraft or other Destroyers. And the fact that the central capital ship, where the queen was located now, could defend itself pretty adequately did not make this mission a piece of uj cake.

"How are we supposed to get past all that?" Onimi waved at the defenses of the central Star Destroyer, which were firing in all directions against the Galactic Alliance vessels that fought on.

Instead of answering immediately, Jacen continually piloted the ship away from incoming projectiles that nevertheless managed a few strikes and damaged the shields a bit. After a while, though, when they were just a few light years from the central Destroyer, Jacen managed, "I'm gonna try another teleportation trick."

"At this distance?" Nom Anor inquired worriedly. "You could overshoot and we'll miss the Star Destroyer completely! It's not like between realities or even large distances across this galaxy-"

"Never tell me the odds," Jacen said before he closed his eyes.

They, and the shuttle, then disappeared in a white flash, a couple proton torpedoes from the Killik fleet barely missing them in their wake.

When they and their vessel next manifested, it was in the hangar bay of an empty Chiss Star Destroyer, cruising above the deck at a moderate speed for a wall up ahead.

Still, even a shuttle's moderate speed in space was still pretty fast when it was in a hangar bay of any kind.

Jacen immediately turned off the forward thrusters while Nom Anor shut off the engines. The shuttle then skidded to the ground and sparked against the deck for several meters before stopping just a few centimeters from the wall.

The members of Team Jacen, having shut their eyes and bracing themselves for impact, slowly opened their eyes, all glad to see that they were still alive.

"Are we in the right place?" Nom Anor asked Jacen.

Jacen closed his eyes and allowed his senses to guide him for a moment before he looked back to Nom Anor. "Yeah, this is the right place. I can feel the queen here."

"Then it's time to nut up or shut up," Onimi said as he stood up from his seat, cracking his knuckles.

.

Plagueis twisted himself out of the grips of Abeloth's tentacles and did all he could to rappel the being away from him, sending physical attacks in the way of punches, kicks, and Force blows of all kind against her. Yet, the harder Plagueis fought, the stronger Abeloth seemed to be, and less fazed by the attacks at every moment.

"You are truly powerful," Abeloth admitted, not slowing down as she continued to lash out against Plagueis. "Not as powerful as I, obviously, but you would make for a most splendid avatar. No one, not even Luke Skywalker, could hold me off for this long."

Abeloth managed to grab Plagueis's arms with her tentacles again, and then extended two more tentacles from her form to wrap around his legs, effectively immobilizing him.

"You were quite a challenge for me," Abeloth said. "But it still wasn't enough."

Her upper tentacles, with which she used to trap Plagueis's arms, extended and snaked for his mouth and nose. The Sith Lord began to gag as he felt himself beginning to become a part of Abeloth.

But then another being leaped from the semi-solid surface beneath the combatants' feet and launched himself for the tentacled entity. Plagueis felt this new arrival put all his Force power into the launch, and the attack successfully broke Abeloth's tentacled vise on him, interrupting her assimilation of his being just in time.

Plagueis's new ally managed to tackle Abeloth onto the semi-solid surface, and then he leaped back to Plagueis's side.

"I intend to get my body back when this is over," Ben Skywalker told Plagueis.

"We'll see about that," Plagueis replied before he and Skywalker looked back to Abeloth, who rose to her feet and offered a look of pure hatred to her foes.

.

Charging out of the Star Destroyer's hangar bay and into the corridors of this level, Team Jacen began slaughtering their way through Killiks and Chiss Joiners who got in the way and tried to put up a fight; Jacen slashed down bugs and blue-skins alike with his lightsaber, putting a little extra energy into redirecting charric bolts back at their firers; Onimi used the Force to let the bolts fizzle away quickly before attacking his foes with bursts of acid that he concocted in his body that he flung with his hands; and Nom Anor stayed behind his Force-sensitive comrades and provided cover and supporting fire where he could.

Jacen led his Yuuzhan Vong friends down through the corridor they were in and now, leaving a trail of Killik and Chiss bodies in their wake, before they made it to a turbolift. The human of the trio pushed the up button and a second later, the door parted up to reveal all six Jedi Joiners waiting there.

"Oh, good, I could use a challenge," Onimi said sarcastically.

.

Together, Plagueis and young Skywalker managed to wrestle their way through Abeloth's tentacles, turning and muscling their way through her grasp, to finally tackle her to the semi-solid surface. They then began sinking all their Force power against her as they pinned her there, attempting to drain their Force energy as they were simultaneously draining their own energies.

"You fools!" Abeloth cried, straining against their attempts to push her through the semi-solid surface. "I offer you glory! I offer you knowledge! I offer you _power_! You reduce yourselves to nothing when you are against _meeee_!"

As she screamed that last word, Abeloth unleashed a Force blast that blew Plagueis and Skywalker clear away from her. They collapsed against the semi-solid surface and nearly sunk back into them; that Force blast was so powerful, it literally wounded both of their souls and threatened to plunge them back into what Plagueis knew was the Lake of Apparitions, as Skywalker managed to tell him before they combined their efforts to fight Abeloth head-on.

Abeloth pushed herself back to her feet, and walked over to the downed Plagueis. Instead of attacking him, she adopted a look of pity on her hideous face. "You wish yourself immortal, and I offered you that chance. The chance you failed to achieve in your first life. And you spit in my face... all in the name of BALANCE!" Then Plagueis convulsed as electricity suddenly appeared around his form; it didn't seem to come from Abeloth, but Plagueis knew it was.

"As your apprentice once said to Luke Skywalker before he died," Abeloth said, "you will pay the price for your stunning lack of vision."

The electricity continued for a while before it halted against as Abeloth swiveled around to confront an incoming Ben Skywalker. She sent a Force wave, which he dodged with relative ease, and continued for her.

Then, when he got close enough, he brandished the Dagger of Mortis from his robes and moved to strike her with it.

.

In the initial moments of the duel against the six Jedi Joiners, Jacen managed to block off the initial several strikes of each of his opponents' lightsabers. It didn't take long before he managed to behead Jaips Greeq and then seconds later slash Qwert across the chest, killing them both instantly. Zierra Zuban was taken care of by Onimi, who managed to splash her in the face with some of his acid from his right hand before he dodged past Kolir Hu'lya's defenses and bit her in her arm. In seconds, she was dead before she hit the deck.

"Some challenge," Nom Anor commented wryly as they watched Jacen duel the remaining combatants, Rigall Brarun and Marr Idi-Shael.

In moments, Brarun was speared through the head by Jacen's saber, leaving Idi-Shael to fend for himself against the obviously-superior combatant before him.

"Jaden Korr ain't gonna appreciate this, Idi-Shael," Jacen said, "but it has to be done." He managed to get his blade in a lock with Idi-Shael's, punched his free hand into the Cerean's face, and then bisected him down the middle.

"Jacen," Onimi said, "either those were the most pathetic excuses of Jedi the Order ever had to offer, or you deserve the rank of Master."

"Ranks are quite meaningless," Jacen said noncommittally as he and his friends stepped into the still-open turbolift. The human pushed the button for the topmost level of the Star Destroyer, and they were brought up there in seconds.

When the door parted to the bridge of the Star Destroyer, the trio found themselves in a room full of Killiks, with only two human Joiners among them - Raynar Thul, a.k.a. ThurThul, and a little girl, all of whom stared at the trio of new arrivals.

"You know, guys, I gotta say," Onimi said to the Killiks, pointing back to the turbolift, "you need better help if those were the best you got in defenses."

"We beg to differ," ThurThul said before he unhooked and activated his lightsaber.

Then the Killiks attacked them.

Jacen began to slash Killiks down by the twos and threes with a little bit more effort than when he killed the Jedi Joiners; Onimi found himself flinging more acids against his foes than he knew he could produce; and Nom Anor clicked his blaster for all the charges it could muster against the swarming insects around him.

In the midst of this flurry, Jacen crossed blades with ThurThul, and their duel was on. The Killiks ignored Jacen from then on, leaving the Yuuzhan Vong to fend for themselves.

.

Before Skywalker could plunge the Dagger of Mortis into Abeloth, Plagueis set upon her from behind and tackled her back down to the surface of the Lake of Apparitions. He then pushed off her and used the Force against Skywalker, sending him flying back.

Before the young Jedi could register that Plagueis betrayed him in the middle of this fight, he felt the Dagger sucked out of his hand and watched helplessly as it flew into the Sith Lord's grasp.

"Looks like you won't get your body back, Skywalker," Plagueis said with a smirk before he rose his arms up to finally end Abeloth once and for all.

But he was then thrown off of her by her sheer power, and he landed again on the Lake of Apparitions, the Dagger once again skittering away from his grasp. Plagueis watched as it moved out of his reach, but this time, he crawled for all the weapon was worth before it would sink beneath the surface again.

He managed to grab just in the nick of time, and then he felt a tentacle wrap around his legs. He was then pulled back toward Abeloth, but he managed to turn in her grasp again and slashed across her throat. A gleaming hole then opened up, and she futilely furled her tentacles against that fatal wound before Plagueis finally plunged the Dagger into her chest.

Abeloth looked up in horror at the one who had managed to end her for good and she let out one final screech of agony before disappearing in a blinding flash of light. Plagueis forced his eyes shut against the all-encompassing whiteness.

When he opened his eyes, he found that he was back on Abeloth's world.

And in his Muun form.

"Master!" Ford called out from behind Plagueis. "You are... you again!"

Plagueis turned back to regard his faithful droid and Five-U. He then looked at his body; it was no longer the compact, human form of Ben Skywalker. It was his skinny, lithe grey form that he had been accustomed to for well over a century of life.

And not only did it feel so good to be back in his own body again, but something from the Force told him the most extraordinary thing to ever happen to him. He couldn't help but smile in joy.

"Yes," Plagueis said, his feral smile brandished before Ford and Five-U. "I am back in my own body. And I have achieved immortality in the process."

"How do you know that?" Ford asked.

"The Force," Plagueis answered. "When I killed Abeloth, I gained her immortality; it is my reward from the Force itself for slaying the Bringer of Chaos for good."

"Does that mean you're taking her position as the Bringer of Chaos then?" Ford asked.

Plagueis shook his head. "The Bringer of Chaos was never supposed to be in the first place. And for stopping her, I have not taken her place; it is irrelevant now."

"Well, then, what happened to the Dagger of Mortis?" Five-U couldn't help but ask.

Plagueis looked at both of his hands to find that, indeed, the Dagger was gone. But when he looked back up at the droids, he knew the answer.

"It is forever gone now, just as Abeloth is," he said. "When she died, there was no further use for it; the Force felt that it was no longer needed." He was silent for a moment before he said, "But none of that matters. What does matter is that I have attained what should have been rightfully mine since my birth; immortality." looked up to the sky, raised his arms, and loudly declared, "I HAVE SUCCEEDED!"

.

All at once, the Killiks stopped attacking Onimi and Nom Anor, giving the Yuuzhan Vong pause. At the same time, ThurThul disengaged lightsabers with Jacen, leaped back, and lifted a hand in defense.

"Stop," ThurThul said.

"Why?" Jacen asked.

"Abeloth is dead now," ThurThul said. "Truly."

Jacen looked confused. Then his eyes widened in realization. "Plagueis," he muttered under his breath.

"There is no further need of this violence or bloodshed," ThurThul said. "The Bringer of Chaos is no more. Thuruht has outlived its usefulness."

The remaining Killiks in the room then spontaneously exploded into chitin and yellow blood, drenching Jacen, Onimi, Nom Anor, ThurThul, and the little girl in all the fluid. In spite of the disgusting event, however, Jacen felt the Thuruht hive mind fade away completely.

"Aww!" Raynar, now free of the identity of ThurThul, exclaimed in disgust. "Gross!"

Jacen smiled. "Good to have you back, Raynar." He then looked over his friend and found the little girl staring back at him, not seeming to mind the bug remains on her.

"Daddy," she said. She then ran over to him and hugged him.

Jacen hesitated before hugging her, confused at what just happened.


	45. Epilogue

Following the collective suicide of the Killik members of Thuruht, all the surviving Chiss Joiners called for an immediate surrender to the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi; with the hive mind dead, there was no reason that the Alliance and the Ascendancy had to continue fighting. The surrender was accepted, especially after Grand Master Hamner vouched for the Chiss, which, in turn, had been secretly vouched to him by Jacen over a private comm channel. Afterward, the Chiss fleet took the remainders of their forces and denied any help from either the GA or the Jedi before they disappeared back into hyperspace to return to the Unknown Regions.

It wasn't long after the Chiss departed the Coruscant system that a Hapan flotilla arrived in full force expecting a battle. Chief Dorvan managed to quell all confusion for the Hapans when he told Queen Mother Tenel Ka about what happened over a holographic transmission.

"Is my daughter among the surviving Joiners?" she asked, obviously concerned for her child's fate.

Dorvan looked in askance at the Queen Mother. "You're not sure? Well, yes, she's fine, but I would have thought that Force-sensitives could sense things like whether or not a loved one was hurt or something like that, Your Highness." His tone was sincere.

"I am not trusting my Force senses too much these days, Chief Dorvan," Tenel Ka said in a formal way. She forced her thoughts of being unable to sense her daughter being inducted into a hive mind away from her own mind. "Where is she?"

"She and Raynar Thul had just been transferred from one of the Chiss's Star Destroyers into the Jedi Order's Imperial shuttle," Dorvan explained. "You may contact Grand Master Hamner if you would like to see her, Your Majesty."

"I would, thank you, Chief," Tenel Ka said. "May the Force be with you."

Dorvan nodded before Tenel Ka cut the comm before contacting Hamner over the Jedi comm transmission.

"Were you and the rest of the Jedi just about to leave, Master Hamner?" the Queen Mother asked.

"We were, Your Highness, right before you arrived," Hamner said. "Would you like to see your daughter?"

_You think I do not?_ she wanted to reply. Instead, maintaining her semblance of calm and collectivity on the bridge of her Battle Dragon, with so many genuinely loyal Hapans around her, she said, "I would, Master Hamner."

"You may see her then," Hamner said. "But I have to warn you, when you see Jacen Solo and two Yuuzhan Vong, don't overreact."

Tenel Ka glared at Hamner in shock. "Jacen?! Yuuzhan Vong?! What are you talking about, Hamner?"

Ignoring the Queen Mother's forgetfulness of his title, Hamner asked, "Well, do you remember when the Council and I explained to you mere days ago that I'm from an alternate reality?"

"I remember everything," Tenel Ka said promptly. "Are you saying that this Jacen and these Yuuzhan Vong are from alternate realities, too?"

Hamner nodded. "They are."

"Well, thank you for telling me this," she said. "But you do owe me an explanation as to why you did not tell me about my daughter's involvement in the hive mind." She then cut off the comm.

Tenel Ka then cut the comm and stood up from her command chair. "I want my shuttle ready," she said to one of her bodyguards.

.

After Tenel Ka's shuttle and the Imperial shuttle had their airlocks sealed airtight together, Tenel Ka stepped through them to board the latter vessel with two male bodyguards. They were met by an expectant Allana, as well as Jacen Solo and two Yuuzhan Vong. Tenel Ka recognized one of them as Nom Anor, the scheming opportunist who the Jedi fought multiple times back in the war, and a deformed, misshapen creature who looked ugly even for his own species.

"Mommy," was all Allana said with a frown and tears limning her eyes before she ran to Tenel Ka.

The Queen Mother knelt and embraced her daughter, unable to quell her own tears from running down her face.

"They're all dead," Allana sobbed.

"Fact," Tenel Ka replied, some of her brisk tone breaking through her sentimentality. "You don't need to worry about the Killiks ever again. And neither does the rest of the galaxy."

"No, I mean our family," Allana said, totally crying now. "Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Uncle Luke, Aunt Jaina, Uncle Jag, Ben! They're all gone."

Tenel Ka patted her daughter on the back, shushing and calming her down. "I know, baby, I know," she said, completely losing all of her queenly attitude and completely embraced the role of a mother now. "But they are in the Force now; everything is going to be all right now." She pulled away from the hug to look her daughter square in the eyes. "Listen, Allana, I am going to take you away from the Jedi Order for a little bit. You will come home and we can be together for however long you want. Do you understand?"

Allana wordlessly nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Good," Tenel Ka replied. "Now I am going to leave you with Borok here." She looked back at the bodyguard to her right. "Take her back into the shuttle."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Borok said with a curt nod.

Tenel Ka looked back at her daughter. "Mommy has to take care of some business with these three men."

Allana was then handed off by her mother to Borok, who took the lead back through the airlock.

When Allana and Borok were gone, Tenel Ka stood back up to her full height and regarded Jacen and the two Yuuzhan Vong.

"Thank you for bringing my daughter back," she said in a neutral tone.

"You're welcome," Jacen replied. "So I assume Master Hamner already told you about us?"

"He did," Tenel Ka said. "Now how did the Killiks really die? Chief Dorvan told me that you were able to kill their previous queen, which destroyed their hive mind. But I, and the rest of the galaxy, know that Allana was their queen; killing her would have been your only option. It was the same case with Lomi Plo, after all. And while I am certainly grateful that you saved Allana from the hive mind, I cannot help but ask what really happened."

Jacen sighed. "Fine. But you and your other bodyguard there have to keep this a secret."

"If we feel that it is a secret to be kept, Jhal and I will keep it," Tenel Ka said evenly.

The remaining bodyguard, Jhal, nodded to Jacen. "By my Queen's life, I pledge secrecy if she deems necessary."

"Oh, wow, a genuinely loyal Hapan," Jacen quipped. "That's a rarity."

"Spare us," Tenel Ka said. "Tell us what happened to Thuruht."

"They died because they were no longer necessary," Jacen answered.

"Necessary?" Tenel Ka asked. "For what?"

"For what they set out to accomplish," Jacen answered. "To protect the galaxy from Abeloth."

"When she would inevitably return, of course," Tenel Ka concluded. "So why is that not the case anymore?"

"Because she has been slain for good," Jacen said.

"By who?"

"Darth Plagueis."

"A Sith killed Abeloth?" Tenel Ka questioned. "I somehow doubt that."

"Well, believe it, Your Majesty," the ugly Yuuzhan Vong said. "Because Plagueis is the only one that can wield the only weapon that can kill Abeloth."

"The Dagger of Mortis," Tenel Ka said.

"Exactly," Jacen said.

"So why did you not tell Dorvan about this?" Tenel Ka asked.

"Dorvan doesn't need to know," Nom Anor said. "The less to worry the leader of the central government of this galaxy, the better."

"That, and we couldn't risk telling him over an open line that a Sith killed Abeloth," Jacen continued. "It'd be bad enough but not damaging to the Jedi Order that it was a Sith who killed Abeloth, because, hey, the Jedi Order's practically banned from GA space anyway. But what would cause hysteria is learning that there's still a Sith out there."

"From what I know, there are still remnants of the Lost Tribe of the Sith across the galaxy," Tenel Ka said. "I'm sure the public would not worry about another Sith."

"Wanna bet?" Jacen retorted. "Especially when that Sith managed to _kill Abeloth_."

"Well, when you put it that way," Tenel Ka said, "I suppose it would do better if the likes of the Galactic Alliance remained ignorant of the existence of this Darth Plagueis. But do the Jedi Order know of him at least?"

Jacen nodded. "With the Killiks and Abeloth out of the way for good, we can focus our efforts on finding and stopping him."

"I would be personally honored to assist this venture in an unofficial capacity," Tenel Ka said. "I can provide you secret agents to help you hunt Plagueis down."

"The assistance is much appreciated, Your Majesty," Jacen said. "We do need the help, especially since the Jedi Order is so few again, what with our recent losses that this recent crisis caused us."

"I understand," Tenel Ka nodded.

All of a sudden, before anyone could say anything more, the air in the corridor of the Imperial shuttle fell still. Even though neither Jacen nor Tenel Ka's Force senses prickled with danger, they all became alert, along with Nom Anor and Jhal.

Out of nowhere, manifesting between Jacen and Tenel Ka was gelatinous, blob-like being with pods all over its form.

"Waru!" Jacen said just as Tenel Ka brandished her lightsaber and Jhal aimed his blaster for the aforementioned entity. "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to bring you, Onimi, and Nom Anor out of this reality, Jacen," Waru explained. "You have succeeded in your mission. You have destroyed the One Sith and ensured the demise of the Killik nest of Thuruht. Now it is time to go."

"But we need to stop Plagueis!" Jacen exclaimed.

"That is not your mission," Waru replied. "That is for the Jedi to accomplish. Besides, you are needed elsewhere now."

"Well, this sucks," Jacen said.

And then a bright white flash fell over the corridor, and the figures before Tenel Ka were gone.

The Queen Mother, after a moment of inaction in response to what just happened, turned back to Jhal. "We must return to Hapes immediately." She led the way back through the airlock for her own shuttle.

Once the airlock closed behind Jhal, the Imperial shuttle also disappeared from space in a bright white flash, but Tenel Ka and Jhal ignored it as they continued to the bridge of the Queen Mother's shuttle.

"Send us back to my Battle Dragon. And give me a link to Master Hamner," she said to the pilot.

The pilot obeyed as he first input a transmission for Hamner, then headed back for the capital Dragon.

"Grand Master, you may now answer my question as to why neither you nor the rest of the Order informed me about my daughter's involvement with the Killiks," she demanded in as calm as a voice as she could maintain.

"We did not want to distress you, Your Majesty," Hamner said in a placating tone.

_Just as Jacen would not tell Dorvan about Darth Plagueis's involvement with the Killiks' demise_, Tenel Ka thought ruefully. "And what would have happened had you gone up against them and killed Allana in the process? Would you have even told me about that?"

Hamner couldn't answer that; he was utterly silent.

"Just to let you know," Tenel Ka said in a disgruntled manner, "neither Jacen Solo nor any of his Yuuzhan Vong associates will be able to help you find Darth Plagueis. Waru has taken them away."

"Very well," Hamner replied. "We could do without them anyway."

_Why do I doubt _that_?_ she wondered. "I am also taking my daughter out of the Order on an indefinite leave of absence."

"I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?" Hamner asked.

"I think she needs some time away from the Order for a while," Tenel Ka said. "Especially since you decided not to tell me what happened to her; and that she lost most of her family while under the Order's wing."

"But... but can't you..."

"No buts, Master Hamner," Tenel Ka intoned. "You will not have my daughter as part of your Order. I made that mistake after her father died, and I do not intend for that to happen again. Do you understand that?"

"Well... yes, Your Highness," Hamner said. "But..."

"What did I say about buts, Master Hamner?"

Ignoring that remark, Hamner continued with, "Allana needs to be treated with Raynar Thul for their time in the hive mind, at least!"

"Hapes has the finest medical doctors in the Transitory Mists," the Queen Mother argued. "My daughter will recover under capable hands. This discussion is now over." She then closed down the line herself just as the shuttle neared the Battle Dragon.

.

"So, my Master, now that you are immortal," Ford said, "what are your plans? How would you go about taking over the galaxy, as Darth Bane envisioned?"

"The galaxy, OneOne-FourDee?" Plagueis retorted. "You think too small. Since meeting the alternate versions of Jacen Solo and his Yuuzhan Vong lackeys, I think that, with my immortality, we will have quite a lot of time on our hands to take over all realities."

"All _realities_?" Ford repeated in shock. "But, My Lord, how can that even be possible?"

"I guess I will have to study up on my physics," Plagueis replied wryly. "And then, one way or another, we will find a way to travel to and from realities, and rule them all!"

"Well, you're gonna need quite a bit of money for that kinda research, and to even build something like that," Five-U pointed out.

"Obviously, I will," Plagueis said. "So where am I to start?" He then put his thumb and forefinger beneath his chin in quiet thought.

"Um, actually, Lord Plagueis," Ford said, "I think I can provide sufficient funds."

"Really?" Plagueis asked. "How so?"

"Well, in my freedom, I managed to acquire quite a bit of wealth over the years following Palpatine's first death," Ford explained.

"How much wealth?" Plagueis inquired, his interest captured.

"Roughly two trillion credits, sir," Ford said.

Plagueis's mouth dropped in astonishment. "Captain Ford?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Ford was silent, not knowing what to say.

"It'd be interesting to see how a Muun-on-droid-" Five-U tried to say.

"You shut up!" Ford interrupted his first and only mate.

"Where is your wealth stored, Captain?" Plagueis asked.

"Coruscant," Ford answered.

"Then we'll go there," Plagueis insisted.

"What about that thing?" Five-U asked as he pointed to the Sith Meditation Sphere behind him known as Ship. "I'm not sure that the Coruscant Defense Forces are gonna think this isn't suspicious."

"Good point," Plagueis admitted as he observed Ship.

_What is thy bidding?_ Ship asked.

"Return home," Plagueis announced. "I shall send for you if and when I need you."

_As you wish_.

Ship then slowly rose off from the ground on which it rested, then, several meters in the air, it turned and soared off into the skies of the unnamed planet.

Plagueis then walked past the droids and continued down the path to where they landed their vessels.

_Soon_, he thought. _All of existence will belong to me, as it should_.


End file.
